Fear.

"You are my beloved Son, with you, I am well pleased." (Mark 1:11, ESV)

They say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but what happens when that fear begins to cripple you?

Hey y'all. I'm back with another segment of "Salty and Lit," and I wanted to touch on the topic of "Fear." As of late, the Lord has been exposing my fears of fear, and how they've been preventing me from serving and loving Him and even embracing His love the way that I should. Before I begin, I just want to pray.

Father, thank you so much for the removal of fear. You see, it's been a long time coming, and I want to thank you for exposing this ill-placed fear and helping me surrender to you. I thank you and love you for the work that You are doing and will continue to do. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

So... FEAR. A four letter word that carries a lot of weight with it. I didn't think I was living my life in fear. Who was I kidding? Myself maybe, but I was thriving off of fear. Pretending that I was just making sure that I was putting the finishing touches on an assignment was what helped me get by, until I was called out by a friend. You see, these finishing touches never finished because of a fear that was recently exposed, which was my fear of disappointing Abba.

Earlier that day, Abba asked me to share a post about something, and I noticed that I struggled with following through because I didn't have the "right" words. You see, I was placing my standards on myself, thinking those were Abba's expectations of me, when in reality, it wasn't. I had a fear of disappointing Abba with the words that I said that I opted not to share at all because not sharing wouldn't generate as much of a disappointment, right? WRONG.

I felt crippled in the instructions that I was given, and it wasn't until I realized that I took my eyes off of Him that caused me to act this way. I knew that I was able to do them (that is, the instructions), but my perfectionism mixed with my ill-placed desire to please God prevented me from doing it out of a place of love; rather, it was coming from a place of fear. But God does not want us to feel like slaves when we do His work; He wants us to embrace the fact that we are His children and can rely on Him for help. Because if God calls us and graces us to do something, that means He will grant us the assistance to do so.

"If God calls us and graces us to do something, that means He will grant us the assistance to do so.”

In Mark, before Jesus begins doing ministry, He gets baptized and is told by God in public, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Jesus was affirmed by God as a Son before doing public ministry, and I think that should serve as a reminder for each of us that God does not love us because we do ministry; rather, He loves us as His children because He is a Father, that is our Father.

So now what? I want to let you know that you need to get out of your head. God is pleased with you because you are His child first, and until you recognize that, you will live your life in constant fear that you are not acting right. It may be easier said than done, but you have to, or else you'll feel crippled with fear.

With this new knowledge for myself, I've come to embrace the freedom that comes with being a daughter, and I hope you can too. Because out of that, you will be able to confidently do the things He's called you to do, not because of the things you do but because of who you are in Him.

So with that, I want to say a quick prayer before I sign off.

Father, thank you for being good. And thank you for being a good Father. Help us to recognize that we are children first and foremost and accept the fact that You love us, simply because we are Your own. Help us to recognize that there is nothing that we can do to earn Your love because we can't and never will be able to because Your love is enough. Abba, we love You and praise You for all of these things. And it's in Jesus' Name, we pray. Amen.

With that, thank you so much for reading. I really appreciate it! And don't forget you are loved, salty, and lit. Bye! ♥️