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GRACE ON TRIAL - Week 2: Repentance, Law, and Consequences · Your Daily Grace

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  Hello, welcome to YOUR Daily Grace. By Timothy Wilder Grace on trial week 2 moral concerns accusation 11 isn't some fear necessary?
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  For much of my life, fear felt normal. Looking back, that had very little to do with faith at first. I grew up with strict parents and high expectations. Failure usually brought consequences, and those consequences were designed to be memorable.
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  School wasn't much different. The lesson was simple. Mistakes hurt, so avoid them.
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  Fear became a powerful motivator. It was only natural that I carried some of that thinking into my relationship with God.
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  Church didn't necessarily challenge that mindset. In fact, I often heard verses like the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Many of us did. What I don't remember hearing very often was an explanation of what kind of fear that actually meant.
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  Instead, I filled in the blanks with the fears I already knew. I feared disappointing God. I feared never quite measuring up. I feared that I was too flawed, too inconsistent, or too spiritually immature to be fully accepted. Deep down, I often felt as though God tolerated me more than he delighted in me.
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  At the time, fear seemed useful because fear can influence behavior. When I was a kid, I remember standing on the high dive for the first time.
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  Week after week, I climbed the ladder, looked down, and climbed back down again.
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  My friends encouraged me, but fear kept winning. Eventually I jumped and discovered that the danger I had imagined was far greater than the reality I faced.
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  Years later, I realized something similar can happen in our faith.
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  Fear begins as a warning signal, but it can grow into something much larger. It can keep us from moving forward long after it has stopped helping us. What starts as caution can become insecurity. What starts as respect can become anxiety.
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  That is why John's words are so important. There is no fear in love, but perfect love. Love casts out fear.
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  1 John 4:18 NKJ VK John is not describing fear as the goal of maturity. He is describing what happens as we become persuaded of God's love.
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  The more secure we are in that love, the less fear controls us.
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  Paul makes a similar point in Romans 8:15, where he reminds believers that we have not received a spirit of bondage leading back to fear, but the spirit of adoption.
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  That distinction challenged me deeply.
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  For years, fear motivated much of my spiritual life. What it never produced was the thing I was actually looking for. It never gave me confidence that I belonged. It never gave me rest. It never convinced me that I was fully loved and accepted by God.
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  Grace did.
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  Fear can modify behavior for a season, but it cannot create intimacy.
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  It cannot produce the secure relationship that every believer longs for God's goal is not fearful compliance.
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  His goal is sons and daughters who know they are loved. When you think about your relationship with God, are you motivated more by fear of disappointing him or confidence that you already belong to him through Christ?
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