Casting Out Every Fear

UV 1447/10,000 Casting Out Every Fear

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

I John 4 v 18

The anatomy of love is such that there is no scope for fear in perfect love. The fact that many of us entertain deep seated fears about life, death, God, sin, judgement goes to show that our love is not yet perfect. Francis Bacon wrote that “men fear death as children fear to go in the dark.” It is the fear of the unknown and the fear of what is lurking in the unknown. Complex and elaborate human strategies at overcoming fear does not often work as the root or source is spiritual and requires the “Manufacturer’s” expertise to diagnose and cure.

Edgar Wallace wrote: “Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake” Fear is debilitating and paralyses us, prevents us from realizing our potential in God. Some of the fears may be imaginary and some based on an actual threat perception. Mankind is afflicted by as many as 400 common fear related mental disorders or phobias. One such phobia that is universal and affects everyone is atelophobia- the fear of not being good enough or perfect. God is perfect and this is the reason Adam and Eve hid themselves in fear when they lost their blissful innocence, having disbelieved God’s word and disobeyed Him. Today, as we believe in God’s Word that came in flesh and blood as His Son Jesus and His Word that is available with us in letter and spirit and as we obey, we are liberated from the chains of fear. We are restored to perfection by grace and perfect love. Hence, all fear is cast out of us. Fear cannot rule us. We rule not by fear but by love. The process of healing or transformation of our lives is summed up thus: The Word process impacts our Thought Process and our Thought Process affects our Life Process.

As we grow in our personal knowledge of the love of God or “agape”, our selfish love that is love mixed with a lot of insecurities or fear is replaced by a God-like love. We can cast our fears out of us and cast our worrisome burdens or anxieties at His able feet. There is a specific Word that will heal us of each of our insecurities or fears. We need to do “ word processing “ or read that specific Word, learn it, understand it, assimilate it through meditation, claim it, apply it and it will heal that particular fear even as we confess it to the Lord and seek His grace or help to overcome. For instance, the fear of failure or atychiphobia can be cured permanently by “Word processing” as explained above. The specific Word to be learnt, meditated upon, prayer over, claimed and applies is Psalm 1 v 3 which states: He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, whose leaves do not dry, who bears fruit in season and out of season. He succeeds in everything He does.” In short, he succeeds even in failure. A winning attitude is sown. It casts down roots, casts out fear of failure, grows and bears fruits of blessing. With a winning attitude, one never fails. If one wins, he wins. If he loses, he learns. Now how to deal with the fear of premature death. Yes, all of us will one day die physically though those who believe God’s Word will live eternally thereafter. But I have come across even believers who are afflicted by a fear of premature death. The specific word is in Psalm 91 v 16 : “ With long life will I satisfy him and after that show him my salvation.” Likewise, every single fear can be cast out and in its place give room for faith, courage, hope and joy everlasting.

Prateep V Philip