I have a confession to make. I've been trying to flow in love in my life, almost not realizing that it is fear that has been pulling me back. I've been able to work through various negative thoughts and emotions. I'd say that my inability to flow completely in love is because I doubted the other people's intentions or I was sad about circumstances or because I was frustrated about my hangups and so on. What I've realized is that the enemy has me distracted by the surface negativity that needs help. However, identifying doubt, sadness, frustration, etc. is like pulling out a weed but leaving in the root. You may rid it for a moment, but eventually it comes back. So, after wading through each emotion, I've come right back down to the same emotional root...FEAR.
I used to say that I believe that there are really only two emotions at the root of everything we experience in our lives. I have postulated that once you weed through the layers of emotional experiences that we have two sides to our heart--good or bad...sad or happy. If someone tells you they are frustrated, to me it would seem that frustration is a complicated version of being sad. Once you peel back the layers of each emotion, it comes down to the core of sad or happiness. However, I have to eat my words or revise that hypothesis. At the heart of every emotion is still one of two base emotions: 1) LOVE and 2) FEAR.
I believe that the full spectrum of our emotions (over 1,000 identified in varied psychological resources) are complications and spin-offs of those 2 base ones. On one side we see the fruit of love being happiness and peace and contentedness and joy and so on. However, on the flip side, we get angry because we are afraid, we get frustrated because we are afraid, we get sad because we are afraid, we get anxious because we are afraid, we doubt because of fears, we grieve out of spaces of fear, we...well you get the picture. And I'm sure that anyone could argue the validity of my theory. This is not scientifically proven (though maybe one day I'll write a thesis on the matter). For now, it's based on years of watching people, praying with people, celebrating with people, and crying with people. I've both watched and experienced what it means to be burdened with fear or filled with love.
"Why does any of this matter?", you may ask. Because, at the end of the day, God wants us to have lives that blossom with the fruit of love. He doesn't want that love in our lives to be suffocated by the weed that is fear. As I sat down to down to have some time in the word tonight, it all kept pointing back to one verse, 1 John 4:18: "
There is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives away fear. That’s because fear has to do with being punished. The one who fears does not have perfect love." Our access to that perfect love through Christ makes the world of difference if we let it. Truly, we have a choice each and every day whether to accept the torment and punishment of fear or to put those fears at the mercy of
perfect love. We have the choice to stop pulling out weeds and get to the root of your fears. Love is waiting to bloom.
Be encouraged,
Pastor Andrea
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