In the parable of the talents the final servant, the one who hides his talent in the dirt, gives his excuse for his failure in clear terms. I was afraid. A simple statement. Here’s your money. I didn’t lose it, at least…
Fear makes us do bad things. Unwise things. Wicked things. Often it just causes us to do less than we could, less than we should. In the case, Jesus describes a man paralyzed by his fear. Though many of us through experience read this man and critically agree that he was lazy and wicked, if we were honest, we sometimes fail in just the same way. We side with fear, saying that we can’t do what we’ve been called to do. We say with our actions that God really isn’t in control of our lives, and we’re not sure we can trust him.
Fear comes in many varieties. There is the fear of not having our needs met. There is the fear of failure, of not measuring up. There is the fear of bad things happening to our family, things we can’t control, or worse, things we maybe should have known but didn’t. There is the fear of the future, that huge expanse that often will not yield to our probing. There is fear of being lonely, ignored, discarded as unnecessary. Fear leads to worry and anxiety, even sin. Taken to the extreme, it is an attitude that says, “I don’t trust you, God.”
God has offered us his love and his presence. His son was sent to become like us, so that we could see in him someone who walked the talk. And he died and rose again to give us assurance that he would do the same for us. Without doubt, we have reason to expect that life won’t be perfect. That we won’t always be in control of the circumstances. But we have no reason to be paralyzed by fear.
What causes you deep concern? What makes you anxious? What bothers you to distraction? What do you fear? Today, spend some time in prayer offering that thing to God. Our hope is in him alone.
And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.
1 John 4:13-191 John 4:13-19
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
13 God has given us his Spirit. That is how we know that we are one with him, just as he is one with us. 14 God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We saw his Son and are now telling others about him. 15 God stays one with everyone who openly says that Jesus is the Son of God. That's how we stay one with God 16 and are sure that God loves us. God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us. 17 If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won't be worried about the day of judgment. 18 A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows that we have not really learned to love. 19 We love because God loved us first.
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