The Stretch: Fear & Love

Fear often comes between where we are and where we want to be. Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, fear often prevents a stretch in our lives. So, as followers of Jesus who aim to embrace the stretch, how do we engage with fear?
There is no fear in our perfect state, where we’re in God’s presence, and all is right. But now, because of sin and its effect on the world, there is fear. This distinction is important because we have to recognize how we are and how we were meant to be. We weren’t designed to be afraid.
Pastor Joey Monteleone shares that the opposite of fear is love. Fear drives us to be self-protective, to use our power and influence to preserve ourselves. It drives us to use others to complete us and to make us feel safe. We can’t have love and fear in the same sentence. When we’re brought into the love of God in Jesus, the fear of punishment or rejection from God is driven out and changed into a fear or reverence and respect for something great than us, which is God’s love.
This video explains that in the same way fear and love can’t coexist, love for God and hating other people can’t coexist. In our relationships, we look for ways to serve, care for, encourage, and love each other because that’s exactly what was done for us in Jesus.
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About Us:
Long Hill Chapel is part of The Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA), also called The Alliance. LHC has a significant history from its founding by a group of like-minded families in 1946. Since then, pastors, business leaders, community builders, and families have been raised up by LHC. Missionaries from Long Hill Chapel have been sent and supported to the far corners of the earth, churches planted, and resources provided to the local, regional, and global impact for Jesus.