Skip to main content

Are You Rooted in FEAR or Love?

If you grew up before the dawn of cell phones, chances are you engaged in the risky business of note passing. As a 90s kid I am a part of the last great generation of crafty paper exchangers. Nothing could make you feel more honored and expectant than to receive a comrades handwritten note shared under dangerous conditions. We all braved equally menacing odds to uncover precious contraband messages. Today's kids will never know such thrills.


I feel like God is throwing His children a message now. The tattered and wrinkled note asks, "Are you rooted in fear or love?" Do not be so quick to answer. This is a complex age old question.  


The Bible tells us that perfect love casts out fear which unearths two startling notions. First, not all love is perfect and secondly, if perfect love casts out fear what does imperfect love do?


Attachment theory queries one main question, "Does your love have a foundation of fear or security. " 


If your love is based in fear you may be clingy with a fear of rejection or abandonment. Or you may experience the other side of fear based love. You could be standoff-ish and fear being suffocated or losing yourself in relationships.  Either way fearful thoughts fill your mind and heart when it comes to being loved and loving others.


In perfect love people are free to be themselves and accept others. Relationships offer soul healing for both parties. While no relationship is perfect as no person is without flaws, the good overrides the bad. 


If your relationships are established in fear, how might the rest of your life look? Healthy relationships are the bedrock of a full vibrant life. If you are anxious about your relationships chances are anxiety plagues other areas of your life as well. The same can be said about avoidant attachment style. Are there areas of your life you ignore or neglect?


How can your life be grounded in security if your heart is afflicted with fear?


Take time to explore this question.  Invite the Lord to show you what He wants you to see.  Stick with Him through the healing process. 


Remember God is Love. He wants nothing more than to share Himself with you.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Revisting: If I Were a Bird & The Season of the Ox

Today I'm revisting two posts from June of this year. My regular devotional reading has me back in Ezekiel and back to the four living creatures. With the Hebrew calendar ending in September, today was the first day I asked the Lord for my word for this upcoming Hebrew year. All things considered, I felt it necessary to revist these posts. Now, I know of at least one dream that was not from the Lord. I'm not sure I am done learning about the ox, but I've learned a little.  If I were a Bird Recently I had three separate people, in three distinct settings begin a thought with, "If I were a bird."  Bizarre, right? At the first comment, I began to joyfully hear Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird" song in my head. By the third comment, in a matter of just forty-eight hours, I was curious. I could not recall ever hearing anyone share such a thought before, and then to have a few in a short matter of time had me wondering. Seemed either an odd coincidence...

Revisting: Wisdom & Authority

Today we are revisting a post from August 18th, 2023. How important it is for each of us to rightly balance wisdom and authority in our own lives. That balance becomes more crucially necessary in marriage. Wisdom & Authority  My husband and I had our routine check-ups this week. He is an emergency room nurse and promptly schedules all of our appointments. For two decades of my adult life, I took care of these matters myself. His planning is a welcome change in married life. He is also handy and takes immaculate care of our yard. Really I won the husband lottery because he also cooks, cleans, and is good at basically everything.   Not that he does everything. We share a fairly even distribution of responsibilities in running our household and raising our daughter. I may not be handy, but I was a responsible homeowner before we met. As someone who left home at 17 and married at 37, I learned how to take care of things on my own, but life is better together. Both my husb...

Revisting: Never Ignore

Today, we are revisting a post from July 13, 2023. One thing we can count on is changing emotions. One day we deal with intense anger, the next extreme apathy. Our emotions may not be wise, but they are telling. Never Ignore I came cruising into my day refreshed and ready to go. Then, I experienced anger. Someone's misinformation inconvenienced my easy, breezy day.  Anger is one of those emotions I find less becoming than others. I was trying to calm myself down when Holy Spirit reminded me that I was not designed to reconcile my emotions on my own. In the past, I have fallen prey to ignoring and stuffing my emotions, but nowadays, I am more likely to try and reconcile my emotions on my own. Perhaps when I have "figured out" what needs to change, I then might go to God to request said changes. Today, I managed to be reminded that God likes us to come to Him raw. In the heat of anger or depths of despair, He wants to be invited into what we are feeling, thinking, and exper...