A Stolen Life…

All of us reading this have been given a fantastic opportunity to enjoy our lives. We really only have one opportunity on this beautiful planet called Earth with which to thrive or survive. And while all of us likely want to thrive, sadly many will not. It’s not that the people surviving this experience of life want that for themselves. But rather, the life that has been given to them has been stolen from them. There are a multitude of reasons why human beings are subject to theft, but the number one reason is always, always fear. I often muse that if you asked most people if they had fear they would respond in the negative. Fear being the sensation we feel when we are in grave danger. But fear is much more elaborate, hidden in layer after layer of thought. Once fear worms its way into man’s thinking, it spreads like a cancer affecting every other aspect of that person’s life. Fear closes the window blinds one by one until there is no more light left in the house. Fear hides out in man’s motivations and seeks to drive his every move. How many people live the lives they live and make the moves they make based upon fear? Fear moves with a subtlety that is difficult to detect. Everyone can see and experience abject fear, but how many can discern when fear and not love is calling the shots? Fear steals away your enthusiasm for living. Fear kills off motivation and drains away your energy to do ultimately leading to complete inactivity and lifelessness. Fear closes all the doors of opportunity that surround you day by day. Fear unchallenged and not confronted leads to a life of misery, indeed mere survival. Fear has only one outcome in mind, to steal away your life and it does so by seeking to occupy all of your thoughts. Fear ends with a stolen life.

The whole concept of something being stolen from you assumes you have something to steal. But, you are not aware you have something to be stolen from you if you have already accepted all of the lies that proclaim otherwise. Life was never intended to be this high stakes game whereby you could lose it all in a moment of time. A game where every day there was this possibility of things going dreadfully wrong. A game whereby you remained powerless against all manner of wickedness and cruelty. For this reason, “fear not” is the number one admonition in the Bible. You can never begin to thrive in life while still harboring and believing in fear. Fear will not leave you alone to enjoy the day. Fear steals away the moments from you while holding some continual threat over your head. We are afraid to go to the doctor, terrified over some potentially, negative test result, assigning to ourselves a certain doom. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to it and its apparent random nature scares us all the more. Fear of failure stops you from even trying and fear of success keeps you down. How many sincere believers who love God live in fear and do all sorts of compulsions and rituals to try and please Him? (As if He wasn’t aware of that…) They put their time in. They work hard. They do what they think they “have” to do and remain oblivious that it is fear that they are serving. Anything that you and I do out of obligation or guilty compulsion, we are doing out of fear. It’s as if we think our relationship with God is a contractual obligation whereby He will do for us as long as we do for Him! And woe unto us if we mis-step or our human weakness wins out. Woe unto us if we break the rules. Woe unto us if we do not honor our contract. That is not a relationship with God, that is a relationship with fear. God, who is Love, is always the initiator of goodness. Always! If He had to wait on us He would be waiting a long, long time. God does not bless us because we are so good, He blesses us because He is so good. There is only one man that ever lived God’s Word perfectly and he himself said in a response, “Why callest thou me good? No one is good but God!” Thinking that God’s care and protection over your life is wholly contingent upon what you do and don’t do is a lie and produces no good fruit, only fear. There is nothing wrong with seeking to do good of course, but doing it out of fear is always wrong. If you do not want to be the victim of a stolen life you have to get rid of your fear.

People have been living with fear for so long that they have accepted it as a normal part of life. I mean after all, isn’t everyone afraid? It’s only after you start to break away from fear, as in end the relationship, that you begin to discover what God had in mind for life. He never expected us to be party of the first part, party of the second part and party of the third part. He designed us to depend on Him, similar to how your children depend on you. When they have a need they come to you. When they have screwed up they come to you. When they don’t feel well they come to you. Whatever need they have, they come to you. Well, life with God is no different. Whoever convinced us that we had to figure this whole thing out on our own? “If God isn’t watching over the city, the watchman watches in vain.” You and I by our human efforts alone are no match for our opponent. The enemy throws so many things at you in a day that you can hardly keep track of it all. But, alas, we try to take it on with our human reasoning, google searches, some added discipline and contractual obligations towards God. You will never overcome fear that way no matter how determined you are to prove otherwise. You overcome fear by deciding to believe what God says above and beyond what fear is screaming at you. You overcome fear by trusting God with every aspect of your life. You can’t keep your kids safe by wrapping them in protective clothing. You keep your kids safe by believing God and teaching them to do likewise. Only God can do for you what you cannot do for yourself. The sooner you accept that, the easier your life will become. Until you accept that you will assigned to a survival life where danger and disaster are around every corner. Your life will be stolen from you and you won’t even register that it is happening.

It may not seem so, but you always have a choice. When you live in fear day by day, especially and most pervasively entertaining a fear of God or a loss of His love or a removal of His protection over your life, it is a choice you are making. God is only good always. Fear is a choice you are making and a choice you continue to make. Fear is not a real thing, but it is a damn good weapon to use against people. And, our adversary has been using it against us for thousands of years. But, you know what is on the other side of all that fear? Real life. Life filled with love and joy and peace of mind. How much would it be worth to you just to find some peace of mind? Imagine living your life how you want to live it without fear of consequences and judgment from God. Taste for a moment how nice it would be to live in absolute freedom from any and all compulsions and guilt. Consider what your life would be like if you were completely free to make choices out of love and not out of fear. Can you begin to see it? This is how God wants you to live and He gave His only begotten son to forever free you from sin and the claims and consequences of sin. He gave him for you and He gave him for me. God does not want you to be afraid of Him. God does not want your life to be controlled and dictated by fear. He wants you to live on the high places of the Earth where there is no fear. Has your life been stolen from you because of fear? Turn to God and get back all that is rightfully yours. Tear down that great fortress of fear that has been built into your mind. The good life awaits you. It is your decision. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb! Recover all that you lost and more.

Just some good thoughts…