We can never be whole, or holy, as long as we are controlled by fear. And we will be manipulated by fear as long as we rely on our own resources. At times, we have all recognized the folly within for relying on our own resources, so we laid them aside and trusted God. But then we circled back and picked up what we had once laid down. Little by little, without even realizing it, we are once again disrupted by the entanglements of our second nature.
The disruption in our lives sometimes serves to remind us we’re back to operating on our own steam, under the influence of our own understanding of things. Disruption rouses us from our senseless stupor, and once again we renew our focus on God. When we are filled with our dependency on God, we are filled with courage to face the fearful things in life. It’s not that we will never fear again—we will not be controlled by our fear.
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is charging through the fear, catapulted by our faith and empowered by God’s Spirit. Our faith must find its Source in God—not in ourselves. Since He is our Source, He must be flowing through our spiritual veins if we are to experience a spirit of power and of love and of composure (2 Timothy 1:7). According to Jesus, who is the Source of Truth, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). The truth is… God’s got it. God’s Way is the way of freedom from the entanglement of fear.
(Excerpt from Holy Libido by Rod Smith, 2012)
Rod & Rose 