Fearless

So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. 

 You should behave instead like God's very own children,

 adopted into his family - calling him Father, dear Father.

 For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts 

and tells us that we are God's children. 

 Romans 8:15-16 (NLT)

Another benefit of being filled with God's spirit is freedom from fear.  There are many things that can cause fear to arise in us.  We may not know God very well and imagine him to be an arbitrary and cruel dictator waiting to crush us at the first misstep.  Or, we may be living in fear of others, always trying to please and never being ourselves.  Or, we may fear the future wondering if something bad will happen to us.  God's word addresses each one of these fears.

First, when we come to know and experience the fullness of God's love it changes our whole perspective.  His spirit joins with our spirit giving us assurance that we are his children and have nothing to fear. We no longer cower before him but begin to develop a trusting relationship.  We begin to call him Father, dear Father.

Fear has to do with punishment, but God does not punish us because Jesus has already taken all of the punishment we deserve.  He does discipline us, though. As a loving father he disciplines us as we need it for our growth and development, but we need not fear his actions knowing that they will always be for our good.   

Love crowds out fear.  As his love is perfected in us, our fears begin to subside.  The more we understand and experience God's love the less fear and apprehension we will have.  If we know we are his and he our loving father there will be no room for fear.

Lord, help us to come to know deep in our hearts that we belong to you and that you are our loving father from whom we have nothing to fear.  

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.

 If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment,

 and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

1 John 4:18 (NLT)