Freedom From Fear

Whatever keeps you enslaved to a self-centered way of living is your true enemy. Christ tells us to "Fear Not!"

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

This is the Prayer of the Bene Gesserit of Frank Herbert’s Dune series. It is the “Litany Against Fear.” And it’s one of my favorite parts of this fictional story.

Fear is truly the “mind-killer.” It produces faulty motivations in my life. Fear betrays my self-centered blindness to God’s love and grace. And fear keeps me enslaved to death.

“Fear not” is one of the most repeated phrases in the Bible, and the Lord Jesus said this to His disciples when they saw Him resurrected.

If you can live free of fear then there will be nothing keeping you from being a beacon of light in your living for Christ!

How do I get to that place of freedom from fear?

Look at our Lesson today in 2 Timothy 1:3-8:

Timothy, my son, I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, as did my fathers, when I remember you constantly in my prayers. As I remember your tears, I long night and day to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you. Hence I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.

Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel in the power of God.

St. Paul writes his spiritual son St. Timothy (as an aside to all those folks who complain about we Orthodox calling our clergy “father,” I wonder what Timothy called Paul) and gives him some fatherly advice about his work in the parish where St. Paul has sent him.

He reminds Timothy first that he is serving God with a clear conscience. What a powerful statement! Being so confident of one’s calling that Paul can say that his conscience is clear is amazing, especially given the life Paul had before Christ confronted him on the Damascus Road. Paul’s clear conscience flows from his confidence in God’s love and mercy and his life of repentance! Timidity betrays a lack of confidence in God’s mercy and His ability to forgive you!

Next, St. Paul reminds this young priest that he, too, has come through hardships in his spiritual journey.

St. Paul tells Timothy that he “remembers” Timothy’s tears. We do ourselves no favors when we hide from the reality of our lives. When we try to pretend that bad things haven’t happened to us, we invite the sickness of delusion and fantasy to overtake us. When that happens, we are easy prey for fear and despair!

Being honest about the good and bad times is all about being free from shame and living a life of repentance. St. Paul tells Timothy that the faithfulness Timothy saw in his mother and grandmother is also a guiding example for him. We aren’t going to escape the crippling effects of fear and doubt by ourselves. Using the excellent and faithful example of those who came before us is essential if we, too, will be faithful. It is not forgetting or ignoring the faithful examples of those before us that teach us how to remain faithful ourselves! They didn’t fear, so neither should we!

Finally, St. Timothy is ready for the natural result of serving God with a clear conscience, remembering to be honest about our lives, and embracing the good examples of faithfulness from those around us: God has not given us a spirit of fear (timidity) but of power, love, and self-control!

That’s the payoff of all that previous hard spiritual labor. Our lives are flooded with the power to stay focused, love to keep our hearts pure, and self-control to exercise our proper dominion over our desires and passions! That’s the birthright of a faithful follower of Christ!

Since today is the day we remember St. Timothy, let’s look at his story a bit. He was born to a pagan father and a Jewish mother. He was a spiritual son of St. Paul the Apostle. And St. Paul sent Timothy to Ephesus to serve the Church there. St. Timothy was made bishop of Ephesus and served there the rest of his life. He was stoned to death as a martyr of Christ because he opposed the pagan worship of Artemis (Diana) in 97.

Today, does power, love, and self-control describe your life? If not, examine where your conscience may be clouded, your heart gripped by timidity and fear, and your forgetfulness of the faithful examples left for you in those who have come before you! Doing this reasonable and necessary spiritual inventory will grow your faith and make you a Normal Orthodox Christian!

P.S. Since you had been instructed in uprightness thoroughly and were vigilant in all things, you were clothed with a good conscience as befits one holy. You did draw from the Chosen Vessel ineffable mysteries; and having kept the Faith, you did finish a like course, O Hieromartyr and Apostle Timothy. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV