Fear No Fear

“Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in Me” (John 14:1, MEV). Jesus loves us enough to give us an alternative. Depression is a choice. So is anxiety. NOT because we can smile and choose not to be depressed and anxious. Because we can choose what the foundation of our emotions is. We can EITHER choose to base our emotions on the feelings that are coming on us (depression, anxiety, sadness, anger, fear, etc), OR we can choose to base our emotions on what Jesus has made available to us: His Fruit from His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). By replacing human feeling with Jesus’ Fruit we can choose our emotions. Positive thinking is good and it does help, but it isn’t a foundation. It has no spiritual nutrients. We can’t grow anything out of it. We can only use positive thinking to approach a situation in a better way than just giving in to negativity. What we need is something real to build something real out of. Which is where the Fruit comes in. When we don’t have any of our own, we can grab some of His. But what we’re meant to do is to use His Fruit to plant seeds in our hearts that will grow into our own fruit – so that we will have something godly to come out of our mouths (Matthew 15:18). It is through Jesus that this is possible. We have to believe what He says. We have to trust that He is telling us the truth. And we need to get His Fruit into our hearts. When we do, we are able to choose what we draw our emotions from. This isn’t wishful thinking. This is careful, tended gardening. There is effort involved. There is time involved. But if we will accept what Jesus says and put our trust in Him, there is no depth of depression or forceful wave of anxiety that can keep us from choosing His Fruit and His Peace. The choice is always Jesus.