Blog – 10-29-20
I’ve written a lot about fear lately, but honestly, I’ve never felt such a high level of fear around me in my life. Fear about COVID, fear about the economy, fear about racial tension, fear about the political climate. Fear. Fear. Fear. As believers, we know that fear is never from God. Oh, the Bible talks about fearing God, but that kind of fear relates to respecting and honoring the holiness of our Creator. The fear that is taking over the world right now is not from God. It’s from the pit of hell. I ran across this verse last week, and it spoke so strongly to my soul. As you know, I’ve been on a love kick, so these powerful words are especially poignant to me: There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life – fear of death, fear of judgment – is one not yet fully formed in love. 1 John 4:18 (MSG) Love is the most powerful weapon we have against fear. According to the verse above, if we can fill our hearts to the brim with God’s love, there will not be any room left for the crippling disease of fear. It also says that a life lived in fear is a life that is not yet fully formed in love. I don’t know about you, but a life fully formed in love sounds a whole lot better than one lived in the prison of anxiety, worry, and dread. Why do we fight God’s invitation to live a life fully formed in love, I wonder? Why is it easier to trust the lies of the world than the promise of God that we are fully and completely loved? Is it because the world is seen and God is not? Is it because the pain we’ve experienced keeps His love hidden from view? Is it because we have believed what people around us have said about us or how they have treated us? Or is it possible our hearts are simply too full of fear? We get to choose what we fill our hearts with. Left to themselves, our empty hearts will fill themselves with unhealthy things. It’s the nature of freewill and being human. But read those powerful words again, “There is no room in love for fear.” I think we all need to write this verse on a post-it note, put it on our phones, put it on a billboard and say these powerful words over and over until we believe and receive the truth they hold for us. Then we can get busy and start cleaning house and making room for love. Let’s choose to stand in the presence of God and ask Him to fill us more and more with His perfect love. Read His Word, worship, pray. Take a long bubble bath in love! Just like you, this has been a year I have battled fear. No doubt about it, I have felt it to the depths of my soul. I have taken a bath in it at times. But I am learning that the more and more I fill my heart with God’s love, the less control fear has over me. It may come at me like an arrow, and I feel the sting for a moment; but I am so much quicker at removing the arrow as I remember that God is good and His love for me endures forever. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I am learning how to banish fear from my thoughts. I want to live a life that is fully formed in love. Don’t you, my friend! It will be a journey we will be working on until we meet the Author of Love on the other side, but it’s a whole lot better than the alternative. Let’s choose to fill our hearts so full of the love of God that we don’t have any room for fear! Hugs and love, Jill