What Are You Afraid Of?

Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 

What scares you?  What is it that keeps you from truly living a life worth remembering?  Did you know that there are far too many people who are AFRAID to live?

• Could it be we fear what others will think or say?  Why? This is the life God gave YOU!  God gave THEM a life of their own.  We are extremely bad about letting someone else live our lives for us because our life is "too hard" or we just want to be taken care of.  Just remember, God gifted YOU with His life-breath and made you uniquely odd. 

•  Could it be that we fear failing? Why? If we succeeded in everything, we would not learn anything.  It is through our errors, missteps, and screw-ups that we learn.  We learn to give second chances.  We learn that no one is perfect.  We learn that we can use our experiences to help someone else.  We learn!

• Could it be that we fear succeeding?  Why?  Sometimes we want to "fly under the radar" because we don't want to be noticed.  Let's face it, if you succeed then people will expect you to do it again, only bigger and better than before.  Yes, there are times I would rather go off the radar, because then I can get a cleansing WOOSAH breath without anyone noticing.  But when God brings success to us, we have the responsibility to use that be an encouragement and inspiration for others!

• Could it be we fear life will hurt?  Yep......Life is going to punch you in the heart!  Not only that, but it's going to hurt, and will probably hurt for a while.  Sometimes we learn to avoid the punches by distancing ourselves from hurtful people.  But anytime we allow ourselves to care as God cares for us, we will get hurt.  We will get hurt when we don't achieve the goals we set for ourselves. We will get hurt we allow ourselves to love. We will get hurt by the expectations others have for us.  We will get hurt when loss finds us (expectedly or unexpectedly).  Life is going to hurt.  We learn from it and we keep going.

Here's the point:  The last thing to happen to us on this Earth is death.  But because Christ defeated death, we know that death no longer is a reason to fear.  Because, whatever happens between your birth and your death, God already knew and had a plan for, before time began.