Fear is Overcome in Christ, not through Us

"We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear." (AA, pg 68)

This passage is a blatant lie.

It's just not true.

Every day, I worked at trying not to be afraid. I would psych myself up, I would say that there is no reason to fear.

Yet fears ran rampant in my life. Just when I thought that I had the fear thing taken care of, whatever person, place, or thing that had been intimidating me would set me off once again.

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fraud and a scam which keeps people in bondage, even though the book and the people in the program claim that "it works, it really does."

The Bible is the source of Truth, because the Bible speaks of one person: Jesus!

How do we get rid of fears?

David offered the source:

"I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." (Psalm 34: 4)

David sang this psalm while in the cave of Adullam, which speaks of rest. He was pursued by his enemies, he had no friends to trust to, to look to for help. He was surrounded by four hundred men who were in debt, distressed, and discontented (lit. embittered in their souls).

He did not look to man for help. He looked to the LORD -- YHWH, was, is always.

What he prayed for, whom He sought, this Wonderful LORD is Jesus Christ!:

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Hebrews 13: 8)

When the writer of Hebrews described Jesus as "yesterday, today, forever", they understood right away the reference to the Name, the Holy God of Israel.

The same Lord who spoke the worlds into existence now lives in every person who calls on the name of Jesus:

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 6)

"The Beloved" is Jesus!

He lives in us, too!

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" (Colossians 1: 27)

and

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)

What is fear, then? It's a spirit, and it is not from God:

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)

and

"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)

Because fear is a spirit, not something that we think of or do on our own, not something which emerges from ourselves, we cannot think of overcoming fear by our efforts.

John writes about the love of God, and how this love casts out every fear in our lives:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

Because we have passed from death to life in Christ Jesus, we no longer identify with our bodies, with our thoughts, with our feelings, but with Jesus, who is seated in full and forever glory at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 2: 6-8)

God has shown us this love, in that through Christ we become sons of God with Christ (1 John 3: 1-3)

Yet we need to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18) and learn the full measure of God's love for us in Christ (Ephesians 3: 16-19)

When we understand this love, then:

18There 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)

At its core, fear speaks of a sentiment that God is still out to get us, to punish us. Yet if we are in Christ, and there is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8: 1), then we have nothing to fear (not even ourselves).

This love, by the way, does not originate with us:

"19We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4: 19)

We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 17), and thus fears of any kind are not us. They do not belong to us, they have nothing to do with us, and therefore the perfect love of God, demonstrated in the Finished Work of Jesus at the Cross, casts out all fear from our lives.

Indeed, we are more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8: 37) because of all that Jesus has done, not anything that we do (and that includes Twelve Steps, which lead to nowhere but death)