Do Not "Outgrow" Fear, but Cast it Out through the Love of Christ

We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us? Self-reliance was good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. Some of us once had great self-confidence, but it didn't fully solve the fear problem, or any other. When it made us cocky, it was worse. (AA, pg. 68)

Even the Big Book gives a question instead of an answer.

"Was it not?"

In a sense, it is true that fear is born of self-reliance.

But the idea that we can "outgrow" fear is just plain wrong.

The Bible teaches us what fear really is:

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1: 7)

Fear is a spirit, and something which does not belong to us. Something which we are not supposed to identify with.

Then the Bible relates the proper way to get rid of fear:

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."(1 John 4: 17)

Fear cannot be reasoned or worked out with our flesh. Fear is cast out with the proper revelation of God's love:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)

Jesus Christ is right now the propitiation of our sins. This propiiation initiates to us and promises forever the New Covenant:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

He puts His laws in our hearts and minds. He leads us from within by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He will be a God to us, taking care of all our needs and providing all that we want. As we delight in the truth that all our sins are forgiven, we can experience all the good that God has in store for us.

Fear is an evil spirit born of condemnation:

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)

This perfection pertains specifically to "conscience":

"1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." (Hebrews 10: 1-2)

and then

"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)

We are called to live in the newness of the Spirit, not weighed down with a guilty conscience, since all of our sins have been paid for.

The sources of fear in my life have rested in many strange things. I was afraid of losing money, I was afraid of losing my home, I was afraid of losing face in front of people, I was even afraid of being paralyzed with fear, so that I could not do my job or stand up to other people

This fear is born only of the sense that all our sins have not yet been forgiven, fully, nor that because all our sins are forgiven, He promises to take care of all our needs in our life.

This is the newest part for me. AA had taught me that I had to take my inventory, maintain short accounts, strive for everything. The New Covenant, bought and paid for through Christ Jesus, is based on the Power and Love and Sound Mind of Jesus Christ, for we have the mind of Christ, one which declares that we are accepted in the Beloved.

We do not outgrow fear, because the fear of punishment (Hebrews 10: 26-27) cannot be eased or satisfied with anything that we do, but through all that Jesus Christ has done in our lives.