Fear and Unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness can keep you in bondage, making you a slave to things like bitterness, fear, anxiety, and depression. Over time, carrying that kind of weight can even affect your physical health. For a long time, I thought forgiveness meant pretending something didn’t hurt me or allowing people to continue mistreating me. But real forgiveness is different.

Forgiveness doesn’t always mean reconciliation, and it doesn’t mean the pain wasn’t real. Sometimes forgiveness is simply releasing someone into God’s hands so you can finally be free, too. The Bible says, “Perfect love casts out fear…” (1 John 4:18). I believe a lot of fear grows where love has been wounded. The more we experience the Father’s love, the more fear begins to lose its grip on us. Fear can keep us trapped, afraid to trust, afraid to let go, afraid to heal. But God did not create us to live in constant fear and torment. He calls us into freedom, truth, and love. Healing is a process. Forgiveness is a process. Sometimes the first step is simply being honest about the hurt instead of burying it. You do not have to carry bitterness forever. You do not have to stay trapped in fear. God’s love is deeper than the pain you’ve experienced, and healing is possible.

For the longest time, I was terrified to speak up in my education class. My professor would not give up on me; her goal was to get me to share my opinion. One day, even though I was afraid, I volunteered to answer a question. A classmate quoted the verse, “Perfect love casts out fear,” and those words gave me the courage to speak. An even deeper example came through counseling. God gave me the courage to face painful wounds and forgive the people who caused deep trauma in my life. As I began to forgive and heal, more of God’s love filled my heart, and fear slowly began to lose its hold on me.

Scripture Reference: 1 John 4:18 (NIV) “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…”