Day 24 - Don’t Fall for Fear

A Weightless Devotional

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel—”
—Galatians 1:6

The gospel is all about grace, but that grace means nothing if we don’t receive and believe its purpose, which includes transforming us from anxious to content.

If we don’t actually embrace the gospel of grace—with all its promises of freedom, peace, and trust in God’s goodness—but only give it lip service, we end up accepting a different gospel altogether: for many of us, it is the gospel of fear.

For the anxious heart, that gospel is one of self-reliance and uncertainty, where we try to control every outcome and secure our worth or safety through our own efforts, as feeble as they may be. Instead of resting in the assurance of the gospel of grace, we end up burdened by constant worry and the endless need to manage everything ourselves. But embracing the gospel of grace means laying down the need for control and accepting that, in Christ, we are already safe, secure, and loved beyond measure.

The gifts that come with the gospel of grace —peace, freedom, and true security—aren't things we have to earn or figure out on our own, and they aren’t reserved for people who already have it all together. Jesus purchased them for all of us, even the anxious, at the highest cost: His own blood.

In His sacrifice, He paid the price to lift our burdens, to free us from fear and anxiety, and to make us whole in Him. And now, He freely offers these gifts to anyone who will just take them, knowing that accepting His grace means resting in His love and letting go of the weight we were never meant to carry: worry over our burdens. Embracing the grace of God means living fully in the freedom He died to give us—a life grounded in His perfect peace, not our constant anxiety.

It is our failures that lead us to desert the gospel of grace, and so desert the One who called us to it. That’s why you have to hear, here and now, that your shortcomings do not define your relationship with God. Neither do your trials, struggles, or fears. What defines your relationship with God is your acceptance or rejection of the sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice, which covers every burden, including those that cause you anxiety. If your relationship with God is strained, weak, or unproductive, then it may be because you are not relying on the sufficiency of Jesus’ work on the cross to be the grace-giving gift that it is. In other words, you are not trusting that the full grace of God provides the strength you need to move from anxiety to confidence in His love and its power in your life.

To rely on the sufficiency of Jesus’ work on the cross, you have to allow that work to be bigger than whatever makes you anxious: bigger than your failure, bigger than your discomfort, bigger than your fear. You have to remind yourself daily of the gospel of grace: the cost, the love that went into it, and your need for it. If you forget all of that, then you miss out on the grace that God is giving to those who believe. Grace is a powerful agent in our lives, not just for eternity, but for now. Not just for salvation but for peace, joy, and contentment. Accept the gospel of grace with all of its challenges, including the giving up of control and the need to know, and rest in one anxious-free day at a time.