Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

There seem to be a lot of fear being spread through media and, therefore, through social media we see a lot of bad things lately like murders, disappearances, sex trafficking, stealing of children, hate crimes, pretty much anything horrible that you can think of.  As I read through Facebook before I fall asleep (which I try not to do anymore), it keeps me awake at night, thinking about the horrible things that are going on in our world.

People are killed and abducted in their homes. THEIR HOMES! Isn't anything sacred anymore? Why can't we feel safe letting our children go to school during the day or lie in bed at night without worrying about a home invasion? Because people are cruel. It's a sad fact, but it's true.

And that's not the only kind of fear there is. There is fear of the future. Fear that a past mistake will come back and haunt us. Fear, fear, fear all around! It's a lie of the devil, and it's something that we don't have to let bother us!

Sure, you're probably thinking that we can't stop something like that, and no, WE can't. But I know someone who can!

God has been trying to get across to me lately that He is the one who eradicates fear. Why should I fear something that I can't control? It all comes down to me feeling like I need to control things, and the truth is, I can't. I can't do anything about what's going on in our world. I can't do anything about anything. All I can do is put my faith in the One who knows what He's doing.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

This verse has been on my mind a lot, and God has been showing me things about this verse that have changed my entire thinking about fear. In this verse, this "perfect love" IS God.

If we fear anything, we can't love. If we can't love properly, then we're missing the whole point of love. Love is never fearful. It's trusting. It's faithful. It's honesty and truth. It is NEVER torment.

Fear is pure torment. We allowing fear to rule us, to dictate our actions. It's robbing us of sleep, of faith, and of trust. And it needs to STOP!

As I was looking through Facebook the other day, I came across this picture from Our Daily Bread.

On my Facebook page for this blog, I shared it and wrote: "‎Faith‬ is, yes, and we also have to remember that 'Perfect ‪‎love‬ casts out fear.' Once you have FAITH that God (Perfect Love) will take care of every situation, fear no longer has a leg to stand on."

Do you remember the when Jesus was in a boat with his disciples, and they were all terrified during the middle of a storm? This is what He said to them, "But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”" (Mark 4:40)

See, between faith and love (Him), God is telling us that we have the means to defeat fear. I liken it to a battle brought on by the devil himself. He is going to throw everything he can at us to make us scared, to keep us from having the faith to believe that God can and will change our situation. It's our job to not allow the devil to continue to keep us from God through fear.

Hebrews 13:6 (NKJV) says,

So we may boldly say:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”

I think that "man" can refer to ANYTHING. No one or thing is going to hurt us because we have God on our side. And God is PERFECT LOVE that casts out fear. But notice the "boldly" here in the verse. It's our job to say this boldly, to believe it WITHOUT a doubt!

So how do you stop being fearful? You give it to God. I asked God once how I was supposed to just give Him something like that and let it go. I saw myself holding a pen, and God said, "Let it go."

"But how, God?"

"You just drop it."

So I dropped this pen, but a few minutes later, I picked it back up. "That's your problem," He had said. "You always want to pick up something that you should have given to Me."

It took many tries before He finally got that pen, and then it disappeared completely. I didn't pick it back up.

You're probably thinking that it stopped there. No. It didn't. The devil tried to hand it back to me, and I took a hold of it, scared to drop it again.

We're fighting a battle, but God has given us the means to "drop the pen" and make it disappear. His perfect love for us has eradicated all fear, but it's our job to have the faith to not pick up the pen again.

What will you choose today? Will you drop the pen and let it disappear, or will you keep holding onto it and live in fear? The choice is yours. God never gave us fear. The devil did. So which do you want to hold on to? Perfect love or lies?