How Do We Overcome Fear?

[arunangelo]

To remove fear from our heart we must have perfect love (1John4:18). To have perfect love, is to have perfect faith in God; because God is love. When we have perfect faith in God, His love expressed through His sacrifice on the cross (in order to expiate for the sins we committed against Him) becomes a reality to us. We, therefore have an absolute confidence that He will protect us from evil. This frees us from anxiety and fear. Furthermore, because of this faith we too will forgive those who have betrayed us and have been unfaithful to us; and compensate for their offenses by sacrificing our pride and feelings, and by staying faithful to our commitments to them. In addition, because love is selfless, if we exercise love, we would be concerned about the pain and suffering of others, rather than our own. These would free us of jealousy, lust, hate and revenge.

 

[Selene]

To remove fear from our heart we must have perfect love (1John4:18). To have perfect love, is to have perfect faith in God; because God is love. When we have perfect faith in God, His love expressed through His sacrifice on the cross (in order to expiate for the sins we committed against Him) becomes a reality to us. We, therefore have an absolute confidence that He will protect us from evil. This frees us from anxiety and fear. Furthermore, because of this faith we too will forgive those who have betrayed us and have been unfaithful to us; and compensate for their offenses by sacrificing our pride and feelings, and by staying faithful to our commitments to them. In addition, because love is selfless, if we exercise love, we would be concerned about the pain and suffering of others, rather than our own. These would free us of jealousy, lust, hate and revenge.

Hello Arunangelo,

I agree with everything you wrote here. I would also like to add that perfect love and perfect faith is to become a martyr like Christ. Take for example, one of our saints, Maximilian Kolbe, who was a Polish Fransician friar who set up a monastary in Japan. Father Kolbe was imprisioned in a Nazi concentration camp. On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. Father Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. Can you imagine....volunteering yourself to die so that another person would be saved? That is perfect love...the same kind of love that Jesus has. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

In Christ,
Selene

 

[Endzone]

I believe fear is a spirit and not an emotion. Let me put it this way. I know there are many demonic spirits of fear that attack Christians. Whether fear is just an emotion, I don't know--or if it is an emotion at all.