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?

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

I've been in discussion with some people on Facebook about how bullying fat people is acceptable. Someone who isn't fat said she was bullied for being too skinny, and it made me wonder, why is it okay to judge others based on looks? Why is okay to bully, period? And it was a simple answer. There's just not enough love in the world.

I'm sure that you've heard of the Love Chapter in the Bible before, 1 Corinthians 13, and I'm sure that most of you have heard it being referenced in weddings or church at some point in your life. But have you really thought about what it says?

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Did you see that? Without love, we are nothing! You can have everything, every spiritual gift, every natural gift, but if you don't love, you're nothing.

So what does love do?

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthian 13: 4-8 NKJV)

Don't you think that if there were more love in the world, we wouldn't have to deal with the awful things that happen to us?

But love goes deeper than this. It's actually a commandment given to us by God. It's a law that we love one another.

As you can see by this list, God has commanded us to love in these verses:

Leviticus 19:28

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: 

Matthew 22: 36-40

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

 Mark 12:30-33

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no other commandment greater than these.”
So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

John 13:34

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

I think it's safe to say that we ought to love God first and then love people as much as we love ourselves. But how much do you love yourself? Do you tend to love others more or less than yourself? If these verses say that you ought to love others as much as you love yourself, how much are you lacking in love towards yourself or others?

Let's go back to what love does? Are you kind towards yourself or others? Do you behave rudely to yourself or others? Are you puffed up in anyway? Do you rejoice in truth? Believe? Hope? Endure? Are you love?

I think we need to just sit back and think about this love. We can't love God without loving others. It's impossible, so if we can't love the woman who is overweight or too skinny, or someone has committed a crime, how can we say that the love of God is in us? That we love God? We can't.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.(Romans 12:9)

Spread the love today. In everything you do, love. Because love makes the world a better place.

Let all that you do be done with love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)

Does your shadow cast perfect love?

I had my thumb and index fingers on each hand touching.  The overhead light cast a shadow of that, and it looked like a heart.  My shadow was casting a heart, and then I thought, Does the impression I give others leave the same?  Does my shadow in life cast off perfect love?

I don't want to be remembered as a sourpuss who was always frowning.  I want people to see me and say, She's a happy, loveable person.  I want people to know the love of Christ after I leave their presence.

See, we as Christians need to give off the love of Christ.  If it's in us, we need to show it.  I know that we have bad days, and it's certainly easy to walk around with a frown on our faces or tears in our eyes.  We get angry and sometimes say the wrong thing, but is that how we want people to remember us?   

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.  1 John 4:11, 12


God wants us to love one another, and since He lives in us, the Bible says that His love is perfected in us.  That means that God's love is perfect, and that perfect love is what dwells inside of us.  So, how can we not cast off love when perfect love dwells within us? 


I'm not saying that it's not alright to have a bad day.  It is, but how can things be so bad when we have the love of Christ working within us?  


This is the love of Christ.  It's a love that we cannot even fathom.  God sacrificed His only Son, so that we may live.  What are we sacrificing for God?  Surely sacrificing a bad day for God isn't quite the same as Him giving us His Son?  




For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  John 3:16
  

What if the person you just gave the finger to who made you angry in traffic needed to see that kind of love today?  What if they were in a hurry to get to a sick loved one who needed them?  Needed Christ?

What if that person who bumped into you accidentally in the grocery store was looking for that perfect love and all you did was talk ugly to them?  

What if the woman sitting alone in a cafe wondered if anyone cared about her and all you did was snub her when she smiled at you?  

Think about that for a moment.  I'm guilty of being ugly in the grocery store when it's crowded and all I want is to get home after someone tried to run me over with a grocery cart, but what if that person needed to see the perfect love of God in me, and I was too stubborn, too human, to give them that kind of reassurance.  

Today, I urge you to be nice; let your shadow cast perfect love today.  Don't leave people with a terrible impression of who you are.  They need to see God in you.  Not the human side.  They see enough of that in this world as it is.



Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not [love], I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  1Corinthians 13:1