TAKING A LOOK AT 1 JOHN

“God is love and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them.”  “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. We love each other because he loved us first.”– 1 John 4:16b, 18-19.

            As believers in Christ we truly have nothing to fear. So why are we afraid. I submit to you this thought, we cannot see God, but the things we can see with our own eyes each day can be very intimidating at times. We fear the unknown. What does the future hold? Are we good enough to avoid God’s judgment? Will be make it to heaven? We only need to reflect back on Paul’s statement to the Roman brethren (Romans 8:38a) to find our consolation. It says: “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.”

            We are human, fraught with insecurities and flaws. God knows this about us because he knows us far better than we know ourselves. Why do we have such difficulty trusting our Heavenly Father when things go awry? It is because we are human that we have this difficulty. Mankind is compared to sheep with Christ being the shepherd. Sheep are not smart creatures. That might insult me if I didn’t know it was true. 

            Perfect love is what God offers. If we fear we have not achieved perfect love. That is not an indictment, but rather a plain fact based on the Word of God. The only way to come close to achieving perfect love is to draw nigh unto our Lord and keep your focus on him and not those things around you. Our circumstances change constantly; God never changes … not even a little bit. It behooves us to hitch our wagon, so to speak, to God and go wherever he takes us. Remember … we have nothing to fear. In the famous words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our president prior to and during WWII, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”  Fear can be very real, but God is the master over all fear. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing! rlkeller

Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.