This Devotional Is Part Of A Special Continuing Series Related To Dependency And Co-dependency Issues. Rules Of Godly Common Sense Apply.

About being afraid to let other people be who they are and allow events to happen naturally...

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (NIV)

Fear can be a terrible enemy. There are many exceptions, but when we are afraid to let other people be who they really are, we can prevent others from glorying God. There are also many exceptions, but when we are afraid to allow events to happen naturally, we can try to stop the will of God in these events. The key word here is "afraid". Because we are afraid, we can often appoint ourselves the controller and fixer of people and events. Rather than being the controller and fixer, we should let the will of God work itself out according to His design. Obviously, many people and many events are not in the will of God. However, even in these kinds of circumstances, we must be courageous and pray. We must pray for God to intervene and do His work in His time, not in our time. We must pray and steel ourselves when we are afraid. We must also have courage to let people fail and make mistakes. If fear is the driver of our behavior, we must learn to step back and stop our effort to intervene in the affairs of others because of our personal fear. That being said, there are zillions of exceptions to our stepping back and not intervening. When we see sinful behavior, we can act, not in fear, but in confidence.