We all struggle with it. Sometimes it haunts us. Other times it paralyzes us. But every time it draws us away from the heart of Jesus. What am I talking about?

Fear. Worry. Anxiety.

Those things that cause us to begin to depend on our own strength. They cause us to think that Jesus can’t or worse yet won’t help us in our present situation. Ultimately they cause us to sin and it becomes a consuming darkness that slowly over takes us and begins to change who we are.

There is a great illustration of this in the movie, SpiderMan 3. For those who have not seen the movie, let me explain. During the movie, a strange black glob (ultimately from another world) overtakes the Spidy suit, changing it from red to black. It turns out that black glob slowly amplifies the traits that the person wearing it struggles with but don’t always let out.

I think of fear etc. in that same way. As Jesus followers we try to control our fear by “casting our cares on Him,” but our problem is we tend to pull them back on ourselves. At that point, the fear, anxiety, or worry slowly takes us over amplifying our sinful desire to be in control and ultimately encouraging us to take matters into our own hands.

At the same time, we are being drawn away from following Jesus with all our heart because of the dark glob that is slowly taking us over.

Unfortunately, once that process starts it is really hard to turn things around. There is another great scene, which takes place in a church, when spiderman struggles to break free from the strangle hold that this “glob” has on him. It’s not an easy thing to conquer. It’s a struggle and it involves strength and effort to overcome it.

It’s like that with sin as well. You have to decide you want to be freed of its stranglehold on you. You have to fight for that freedom and it’s not easy.

I love the teaser for Spiderman 3. At the end of the teaser, comes the tagline: “The Greatest Battle Lies Within” (If you have not seen this teaser, it contains some of the clips I referred to above.) With fear, and any other sin, that sums it up perfectly. It’s about the battle of the “old life” of sinfulness vs. our new life as followers of Jesus.

With fear, it means casting those cares or concerns to Jesus and NOT taking them back. It is a matter of trusting God even when that seems counter to what you think you should do. We need to give complete control back over to God.