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Yesterday evening, as I was teaching piano lessons, I heard a familiar excuse coming out of the mouth of an eight year old, "But I’m afraid I’ll hit the wrong note!" I have four children of my own. The key word AFRAID is something I hear all the time. Children are naturally afraid-afraid of the dark, the boogey-man, bugs, doctors and many, many other things that we adults think are silly. Childhood fears are normal and sometime keeps kids from doing things that might harm them. What I find interesting and almost ridiculous, is the fear that I see in many Christian adults. Fear in the Christian’s life is sin… plain and simple. Romans 8:15 says, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father." Any emotion or attitude that disintegrates the human personality so that we miss the mark is a sin-something to be disposed of. At it’s simplest level, fear may cause us to stand back or think twice about something; or on a more sophisticated level, fear may cause terrible depression. At any level, fear destroys coordination, riddles personality, blocks logical thinking and makes solving problems very difficult or even impossible! When we worry, fret or fear, we are really saying, "I don’t believe you God. I don’t think you can help me. I don’t really trust you like I say I do." In doing this, we are sinning against God, our Father. We are impugning His character and calling Him a liar. Now, I hear you…you’re saying, "That’s harsh Belinda." I know it! I deal with this sin every day! See I don’t write about things that don’t effect me in some way. I’m preaching to myself! II Timothy 1:7 says, "For God has NOT given us a spirit of fear, but of POWER and of LOVE and a SOUND mind." So God doesn’t give us fear…then who does? I’ll give you one good guess. Yep, satan is the author of confusion and fear. He will stop at nothing to bring you down and to keep you from being a prosperous, happy child of God! But take heart, God promises us that if we will allow the Holy Spirit to indwell us and we forsake the sin of fear, then He will give us supernatural strength and power to deal with our afflictions. So how do I get rid of fear? Well, just ask! We must confess fear in true repentance, claim God’s promise of forgiveness…and get on with life. Check out my single, "I Will Not Fear." It is based on Psalm 23. "I will not fear, I will not faint, death is a shadow, not reality for a saint. You are always with me, comforting and cleansing, anointing me with Your eternal grace. I will not fear, I will not faint." (copyright 2007, Belinda Jane)