Fear
If you spend any time at all quietly noticing your thoughts, feelings, desires, and sensations, you will sooner or later become aware of some fear. Fear is an external imposition which separates us from God. Fear is always there on some level, which we may deny, suppress, compensate for, or allow to make choices for us, in a self-limiting way.
For many people, fear speaks more loudly — and has more control over them, than just about anything.
It is a problem when fear has more influence over you than God. The world will never stop bringing things into your life, your nation, your community, your institutions, or your personal life for you to be greatly concerned about. Fear is not just concern, or worry; it is a manifestation of another kind of darkness, to entirely displace you from your true self, and God.
Psychologists will tell you that fear is good, it is your friend, it is there to guide you, to help you, to protect you. But, fear does not protect you from Darkness as much as deliver you to it, on your knees.
Realize the difference between fear and awareness. Awareness is simply noticing what is happening in your experience, with clarity, such that you are able to respond in an appropriate way. Fear is a kind of mental, emotional, psychic, or spiritual paralysis. It demands your submission, your extreme (and usually unthinking) emotional reactiveness.
Clearly, there are things that are a danger to us. But what traps, controls, and unduly limits most people are not rational fears. Rather, they are external impositions of Darkness, which people get used to, and even come to find some false reassurance from.
Fear keeps you from a greater Truth, awareness brings you Truth
It is ironic that the True God is one of Love, Peace, Goodness, and Light. And yet organized religion is one of the greatest forces in this world that "biblically" says we should fear God. As if fearing God is anything God wants from us. This is Satan's Lie. And it is not intended to bring us closer to God, but to separate us from God.
Along with this fear of God, organized religion requires that we fear God's judgment, that we live with the fear of being condemned to hell if we do not obey every last injunction, dogma, ritual, or controlling belief of the Church authorities. Again, this is nothing more than the work of Satan, to separate us from the True God and make us live in fear — and a false dependency upon the Church for our "salvation." Again, that's just another Lie from Satan.
It is sad to see people who are essentially good, and who are religious, who are 100 years old, who still live in daily fear of not being good enough or worthy enough to be with God, Christ, Jesus when they leave this world. They are afraid they will be harshly judged, and find no place in God's eternal Paradise. Their Church did this to them, not in God's name, but in Satan's.
Fear keeps you from God, and is not from God
Today, countless millions of Americans live in fear of saying the wrong word, or using the wrong pronoun — because of very real threatened punishment (including being charged with a hate crime and sent to prison), cancellation from society, loss of job and income, and even loss of one's children (because using the "wrong word" is held as a form of child abuse). And so people fear the truth, hearing the truth, saying the truth, or acting on the truth. Satan couldn't be happier.
The first thing you might do, in relation to fear, is to understand or see how it is based upon lies. It is often not real, true, right, or good for you. And it is not God's will or Way. If you can do this in relation to the truth and God — and trust God, rather than fearing or denying God or the truth — then you can sort out the rest of your life a lot more easily, seeing many fears for the lies they are.
Do you fear not being approved of by others, whether friends, family, strangers, authorities, or others?
Do you fear being rejected by or abandoned by your society, your group, your culture, or others who hold views that you know are not right, good, true, or godly?
Are you afraid to stand for God — within you — because of how others might look upon you?
At the beginning of the Bible story, the "gods" — yes, it actually says gods, plural — declare that they have created man in their image. These are the old gods, who genetically designed human bodies to have weakness, suffering, pain, disease, fear, and every form of self-doubt and limitation. To cut off human beings (who are spiritual beings) from their True God. Satan did this from the beginning. Our fears, doubts, suffering, and death are all Satan's design, programmed into us even before birth. They are not the result of our "sins." So, we go through life suffering, separated from God, and never really know why — what the Truth is. This causes us to feel abandoned, isolated, helpless or hopeless, and to live in fear.
The harsh, angry, violent, judgmental "god" often seen in the Bible is not the True God. It is Satan, who is the "god" of this world, and who has been, from the beginning. He is a liar and murderer, the father of lies, and a pretender. His story, his lies, counter God's Truth. And, when Satan's very big lies are repeated often enough, over thousands of years, people are trained to believe them, with a fear of losing their mortal soul or being condemned to hell.
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." — Plato
The biblical origin story that first there was Darkness, and then — out of Darkness — there came Light, is not true. It is Satan's lie. First there was Light, and then it was overshadowed by Darkness. The old "gods," the serpent race, cut us off from God. The so-called "Serpent" in the garden, Satan has ruled by fear, not love; lies not truth; and relentless evil, war, sickness, suffering, and death. That is all Satan's agenda, his work, not God's.
Jesus came to try to remind us all of the True God, the God of Love, Light, Peace, Joy, Grace, and Life. If you can keep that true vision of God — the True loving God — then you can hold onto the belief that there is an Eternal Life with God, Christ, Jesus, waiting for you. Believe it: Jesus truly is for you. Trust God that it will all work out for you in the end. Believe that. It is God's Truth.
That is all God wants for you.
And, if Eternal Life in peace, love, joy, and fulfilment awaits you, doesn't that put life's worries and fears in their proper place, in this world? Let go of your programmed, worldly, and temporal fears. This life is but a moment in time, compared to the Eternity that awaits you with God, Christ, Jesus. Praise God. Be strong, and fear not. The love of God will bring you Home.
