"Jesus came to us to help us overcome our fear of God. As long as we are afraid of God, we cannot love God. Love means intimacy, closeness, mutual vulnerability, and a deep sense of safety. But all those are impossible as long as there is fear. Fear creates suspicion, distance, defensiveness and insecurity."
-Henri Nouwen
Jesus lived a life without fear. He was able to live without fear because he had full trust in his Father's love and power. He knew of God's ultimate compassion for all in need. And he knew of God's great power to do all things. But Jesus also had one other act of faith-- He was completely confident in His relationship with God. That God would listen to him and accomplish that which he asked.
It is interesting that Jesus only got upset with the disciples when they surrendered to fear instead of faith. And when they lived in fear, Jesus said that the answer to their fear was faith in God's power, God's love and God's desire to intimately relate to us.
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