We were 'no longer slaves' a long time ago

What is fear? Oxford defines fear as "to be afraid of someone or something as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening." Fear is shown in many different ways; one of the most common forms of it is probably in the form of worry. Worry is often said to be the direct opposite of faith. In the end worry can easily "kill our faith" because it causes us to remove God from our circumstances and to rely on our own understanding. During Jesus' well known Sermon on the Mount He clearly explains the foolishness in fearing what is next to come as it reads in Matthew 6:25-34: 

“This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Philippians 4:6-7 reads "Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Isaiah 41:13 says "For I, Yahweh your God, hold your right hand and say to you: Do not fear, I will help you."

And finally; one of the most heard scriptures Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

I also want to encourage you to read Psalms 37 on not worrying and trusting in our Father's provisions.

As we can see, we are clearly told in the Word of God to not worry and to be without fear; yet that is unfortunately exactly where we most often find ourselves. Today I am not writing this as a fix all or even a solution to our lack of faith problem; instead take this as a challenge of increasing your faith.

In Galatians 3:26 it says "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith" A line of lyrics in the song "No longer Slaves" that I have attached to the beginning of this post is "You split the sea, so I could walk right through it. All my fears were drowned in perfect love. You rescued me, so I could stand and sing. I am a child of God.”

He rescued us so that we could stand and sing that we are children of God; yet we don't. Why do we not live a life as a freed child of God? We have instead chosen to live in the shame of our past selves. When will we stop letting our past define us and allow the name Christ has given us to? He has redeemed us and we sing of it, and say it yet we don't walk in it. We live in fear of freedom. Fear is our clutch, a bad thing has become our comfort because it's familiar but when will we rid ourselves of fear and fully embrace the love our Father offered to us a long time ago? Regardless if you have been saved your entire life or 1 day; you have been renamed as a Child of God since the moment of your salvation. However we instead walk timidly with no confidence in our newness with our heads turned back to who we used to be. We worry how others will see us, wondering if we appear "saved enough", if we've been a Christian the "right or wrong way", or if we've been dedicated enough to be "truly" saved. The honest truth is that Christ did not come for us to walk with Him when we're sure of our salvation. We have our "ups and downs" in our walk with Christ. We can easily feel very connected with Him and then we can feel as though He is not there; that we've somehow messed it all up. But first of all, He is not a feeling that just comes and goes; He is constant and never changing. As Hebrews 13:8 says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." So then it must be something we have done? NO if He called us Children of God; then that is who we are; what He says does not change. As Matthew 24:35 says "Heaven and the earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away." His words do.not.change.
To sum this all up; why do we not walk in the freedom we have as children of God? When will we believe in the salvation we have been given? When will we believe that salvation is not based on what we deserve but by the grace God has given us? This here is what I personally believe is one of the biggest hindrances we have to not walking out freedom. Shame, guilt, and fear of our past; thinking that what we have done makes us undeserving of God's love; and that's absolutely right - we don't. But that's also the entire point of His love. His love is available to us through grace. And that is what I think we so often fall short of embracing. And let me be clear that my point is not that God's grace gives us excuses to do whatever we want in the knowing that He has grace for us. Instead my point is that just as God has grace for your present mistakes; He has grace for your past and it is not something to fear and worry about. We need to rid ourselves of fear because just as this song says "I'm no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God." And we must come to a realization that we were 'no longer slaves' a long time ago; so why are we waiting for a time that we think we'll better deserve it?

So again I ask you and challenge you, as much as I do myself: When will we rid ourselves of fear and fully embrace the love our Father offered to us a long time ago? Today begin to walk in the freedom that God has given you; with confidence as a child of God.