Two of the factors that motivate all people are fears and rewards. People will do or not do something out of fear. Rewards are also a powerful motivation to move people to do or accomplish what they otherwise would not do so. Rewards are a positive motivation and usually tangible. Fears are generally felt and can be either real or perceived. However, perception is reality to the one perceiving so fears that are felt are real to the person who feels or experiences them. Fears are intangible and are a negative motivation. Fears can control actions, people and even control destinies if one gives in to them. However, no one likes fears nor being controlled by their fears. Whatever controls a person is what enslaves him. Is freedom from fear a possibility? Yes, very much so and that freedom can become a reality.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
Freedom from fear can only come when someone or something greater than the fear takes control of a person. The fears must give in to the greater power. A person, within themselves, do not have the power to set themselves free from fear. Jesus Christ has the authority and the power to set a person free from fear. He came for that very purpose. He came to set people free, free from the forces and influences that control, bind and enslave them.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18,19
Jesus Christ came to proclaim release to those held captive by their fears and anything else that enslaves them, whether it is real or imagined. Not only did He come to proclaim release but He came to set every person free. This freedom is a gift that He offers to any who will come to Him and receive it. When God sent Jesus Christ into the world He looked with favor upon us.
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, I John 4:16-18a
Jesus Christ is God’s expression of His perfect love. When we come into a personal relationship with God then we experience God’s perfect love and that perfect love casts out all of our fears. His love replaces the fears that used to control us and His love begins to control us, our actions, lives and destinies. His love is perfect and when we come to know His love we need not fear anything. His power is greater than any other power in the world and His power can keep us in His love.
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. I John 4:13-15
When we receive Jesus Christ into our life then He gives us His Spirit. His Spirit will always remain in us if we are His child. His Spirit and the spirit of fear can not abide in the same person. The spirit of fear leads to slavery and the Spirit of Christ leads to freedom. The spirit of fear is not of the Lord and the one who fears is not controlled by the Spirit of the Lord.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
Do you struggle with fears? Come to Jesus Christ. He will cast them out and cause His love to take the place of your fears. You will be set free. He came for this very purpose and this gift of freedom is for all who will call on Him.
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” Romans 10:9-11
Instructions To A Young Life 