"Practice love everyday and watch your thoughts and watch your tongue, and watch your deeds, that nothing contrary to love finds expression there."
Fear, and its many derivatives, is the absence of love. Where there is fear there cannot be love. Fear can show us as many other different emotions such as envy, regret, impatience, depression, jealousy, anger and resentment (just to name a few). So how can we cure fear? According to Scripture, the idea of God as Love develops into our answer. As it says in 1 John 4:16… God is Love, whoever lives in Love, lives in God. So to abolish fear we must turn our attention to Love.
If you love God more than anything else, love will be your experience. However once any one thing gains more love than God, that becomes your experience. Have you ever heard of the phrase "Death by 1,000 cuts"? I have struggled in my life with allowing thoughts that are based in fear to pick away at the surface of my consciousness. I would let little thoughts gain more and more power over me and my state of mind. I used to be very afraid to fly. I know that sounds funny, as many of you know I fly quite a bit these days. But this fear was crippling. I would try to escape from it by having a few drinks before flight, but regardless of my preparations, I would be terrified the entire time. One day, I realized how much time and energy I was wasting being afraid. I realized that all the time on the plane that I would spend a nervous wreck, I could be spending in prayer or writing or praying.
Once I turned my attention from what I was fearing (death) and towards God (Life), my fear began to dissipate. I even created a little song that I would sing to myself to remind me to focus on Love when fear tried to settle in. I now teach this song to my children as I put them to bed, letting them know that they are safe and protected.
Jesus' message was very simple. It was to love. To love God, to love each other and to love ourselves. How will people see this message in action? People will see this love as we demonstrate it to ourselves and to each other. As we go out and love the world, those thoughts, words and actions will cause a shift in consciousness, a little boost. People will know we are loving only by our actions. So go out there and love somebody :)
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