Free From Fear

To give credit where credit is due, image from www.goliveoriginal.com

We all have it. It's an inevitable part of life that we really don't talk about all that often. Yet it haunts us, plagues us even. It consumes our lives entirely, but we like to push it into the corner and cover it up and choose to live like it's not really there.

It's fear. More than that, really, it's fear of death.

I have been reading through the book of Hebrews in my devotions recently and it's amazing how God has been speaking to me through it. Specifically, in chapter 2, I was reading about something I felt compelled to write about here on my blog.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. -Hebrews 2:14-15 ESV

The part that really sticks out to me is that we were subject to lifelong slavery. We are born sinners. It's something that we have inherited from the very beginning when Adam and Eve first disobeyed God. And the result of sin is death. It's as inevitable as our fear of it. And we're slaves to it. Our sin chains us down, yet we don't know how to break free. I mean, it's inevitable, right? It's something we all struggle with and it has this power of us that we just can't defeat so we may as well live life in the moment because life is short. We're not guaranteed another day. But the chains still hold us down.

The wonderful news is that there is hope. There is a way to break free.

Jesus Christ is our hope. He has suffered our death for us so that we don't have to. He did this on the cross. He was tempted, yet was still without sin. He defeated sin, death, and the one who has power over you and your sin. And He is calling you to become one of His. All you have to do is believe that He is Savior and give your life to Him. Surrender your everything and He will break your chains and set you free.

And the thing is that we can't break ourselves free. We don't have a key and we're not strong enough to break it. But He is and He wants you to be one of His, to adopt you so that you can be a child of God the King.

God is surely a "merciful and faithful high priest" (verse 17 of this chapter). He made a way to save us from our inevitable destiny. We were sinners and we hated Him and rebelled against Him, and yet He loved us. And I'm so, so far from deserving any of it. We all are. We wouldn't even love him if it weren't for His work in us. He is perfect and beautiful and loving and just and if we hate Him it is because of our sin.

I am always, ever marveling at His wonderful grace. That grace that has set me free.