Hello Love. Goodbye Fear

What is your perception of God these days? 

Is He someone you perceive to be seated on His throne in heaven, unconcerned about your life? Is He a Father Who loves you & blesses you according to your behavior? Or is He a loving Father and Friend Who loves you in spite of?

Great news.. Only the latter is true! Though at times, it seems too good to be true, especially when we consider our shortcomings. We mess up and then tend to second guess if God still loves us or if He is still going to bless us. Then as a result, we do things to try to earn His love and get back in His good graces. But when we operate in this way, the root of it is fear. And we know that fear opposes faith. We also know that we were actually saved by FAITH (through His grace), so when we operate out of fear, we’re essentially operating outside of our salvation -His perfect love plan.

The overarching picture of The Gospel or Good News is LOVE! It was God’s love that knew us before we were formed in our mother’s womb. It was His love that sent His Son to die a cruel death on our behalf & cover our sins because He knew we’d never live up to perfection. It’s God’s love that redeems us and draws us to Himself. It is His love that gifts us new mercies each morning & forgiveness when we ask & repent! When we operate from fear, we reject His love and the benefits of our eternal salvation. 

HOWEVER, because we are imperfect beings and we are prone to forget; God encourages us 365 times in scripture to “Not fear.” It has been said that He has intentionally spoken “Do not fear” 365 times in the word, that we may apply it to our daily lives -all 365 days of the year!

What’s even better is that in our verse for today, God reminds up that His perfect love belongs to imperfect beings, like us! And because of this, we need not fear! Let’s look at it.

 1 John 4:18 reads:

“Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. “

I love how this scripture speaks of experiencing His perfect love and how the evidence of not walking in it is fear. Now this doesn’t mean that fearful moments or emotions will never arise. This verse is referencing walking in fear, dwelling in fear, rolling around in a pile of fear. 1 John 4:18 also corrects our false perspective of a God Who operates off of merit. The lie that good works equals His love and mistakes equal less love. If the Word says, “His love is everlasting”, then the merit system proves false. 

We have adapted the pattern of love with conditions, from our experiences with humans. All throughout our lives, we were rewarded for doing/saying the right things and punished for the opposite. As a result, we often assume this to be God’s pattern too. But God wants our hearts. Then progressively, righteousness will flow. He already loves us infinitely and because of this, we work FROM love not FOR love.

Though we may be reprimanded for our unwise decisions (still not as bad as we deserve), He is still so patient and understanding with us. The Word confirms that “No one can measure the depths of his understanding.” He is the God who provides “grace that is sufficient” to cover everything we are in panic about. And ultimately, if we believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior; then we know that when this life ends, we will not experience the “punishment” that belongs to those who refuse Him. 

Now that we’ve established that God’s love is without conditions, you’re probably thinking, “Okay girl, so how do I shake fear and experience His perfect love?”

Simply put; BY KNOWING HIM.

Think about it. The more you know someone, the more confidence you have in knowing their character. You become sure of what they would or wouldn’t do. The more acquainted we are, the more we can confidently testify to their character -whether good or bad. 

Likewise, our confidence in God is built by personally knowing and experiencing Him. We get to intimately know Him and His ways through His word and His work in our lives. When we read His word, even the parts of scripture where consequence is taking place; we always see the result of His love and redemption. We even see Him speaking to us about our identity and encouragement of Who He is to us. 

Sis, whether you’re in your wilderness season or your mountaintop season; the more you KNOW of His character, the more you’ll walk confidently in His PERFECT love. It is a progressive process, but you’ll find yourself being more intentional about it. 

You’ll go from guilt & shame to declaring, “I am forgiven, there’s NO condemnation in Christ”. 

From fear of the future to being strengthened by the fact that, “the Lord is with you & says not to worry about tomorrow.” 

From heartbreak to knowing, “He draws close to the brokenhearted & those crushed in spirit.” 

From believing the lie that you’ll always be in lack to believing, “The Lord will supply all of our needs with HIS RICHES.” 

From perfectionism & people pleasing, to assuredly living like, “God sees, knows and validates you.” 

From thinking that God is tired of you, to being aware that “God is patient and full of compassion.”

ALL of the quoted phrases are found in scripture, sis. That means it is TRUTH! Let His Word minister to you and draw you close, that you may personally know Him. Avail yourself to His loving correction too, because “He corrects who He loves.” Whatever you do going forward, reject fear with the knowledge of His love for you. You know, the same confidence we have when love is displayed to us by a person. We get all confident when lil Ray Ray romances us (Sorry if your man’s name is Ray!); let’s keep that same confidence with God! Because His word is a whole love letter to US & it is much greater than the love of any person. And it is CERTAINLY greater than fear and alllll of your mistakes. Whether it’s fear from your own disobedience, fear of the unknown or fear of people; I dare you NOW to trade fear for God’s PERFECT love and live in HIS FREEDOM!!

Let’s pray:

Loving God, thank You. For Your love that results in redemption, mercy, forgiveness, grace and understanding! Let Your unconditional love ignite an overwhelming confidence that helps me walk in assurance and freedom. Forgive me for the times when my lack of trust in You resulted in fear. I repent, God and I am choosing to trust You today -even the tough areas. Your word say, that those who trust you will not be disappointed. So work in my life, according to Your will which is always good! Free me from all of my known and unknown fear, Lord. Silence every lie and plot of the enemy that tries to ensnare me in fear. May his intimidation schemes utterly FAIL! You’ve said that with Christ, we can do all things, so help me operate in Your strength. I ask for the Peace of God to guard my heart and mind as I go about this new week. I pray that You would destroy every thought that opposes you and give me a word that I can cling to. More importantly, give me You, God! Thank You  for all of the hope that comes from placing my trust in You!

In Jesus’ name, amen