To be with Jesus, is the most blessed thing. To be with Him and have fear, is contradictory and unreliable.

I have seen many Christians walk with fear, including myself. Stepping back, a part of me sees why. We feel as though something that we might be able to construct will terminate our relationship with Jesus, that within ourselves lies the power to destroy a partnership that someone paid for, with their entire life.

But being with Jesus, is not something that can be taken away from us so quickly.

Jesus is not ready to cut ties with us as soon as there is a misinterpretation or lack of understanding between our brain waves and our footsteps.

I've caught myself living like no Christian ought to. I do things, or don't do them because of the worry that stems from the mindset, or fear, of separation. We live thinking that everything we do has the possible outcome of separation from Jesus.

But guys and gals, as long as we live like this we are succulents trapped beneath the darkness of a dungeon door, sealed from our ability to grow in confidence with Him.

How does one flourish in a marriage or grow in a relationship when one person of the two is consistently doubting their partnership? You can't live with a person like that, happily at least.

Doubt destroys beauty. It does. It brings distraction from thanksgiving and joy.

But we do this so often with Jesus. We don't walk confidently with Him, we don't see our relationship as a partnership that abounds. We doubt ourselves, our abilities in Him, His words to us and even just the knowledge that He is with us (which is actually who He is, Emmanuel).

We weren't hand-picked by the Creator to fall flat; we were created by confidence, for confidence, to be pillars of wonder, wondrous things that exemplify His name in the earth.

So let His love flow around us and choose to be confident in that love. Let His strength gird us; let His smile brighten our fears. Let us be a people who release doubt and relinquish worry.

He's too good for us not to fall face-first into.

Exploring His love should captivate us, entrench us into a heart full of confidence. If we abide in Him, we won't have fear that halts our growth with Him.

Perfect love casts out all fear, for fear has to do with punishment.

(And child, He knows how to discipline without punishment. If discipline is what you are afraid of, run to Him. Run and don't look back.)

1 John 4:18; Romans 3:25-26; 1 John 2:28; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 3:17-19; Romans 8:38-39; John 16:33; Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 43:1; 2 Timothy 1:7