Fearless Love
“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. We love Him because He first loved us.”
I John 4:18-19 NKJV
Fear is torment. Man, and don’t we know it? How many of us have personally felt the tormenting, paralyzing, and crippling effects of fear at some point in our lives?
Fear. Is. Not. Fun. It pretends to have our best interests in mind, pretends to protect our deepest insecurities, but fear is a liar. It’s only purpose is to prevent.
To prevent us from moving forward, from healing, from growing.
Fear is TORMENT.
But LOVE… love is different. Love is the good stuff. Love wants what is ACTUALLY best for us. You see, when love comes on the scene the first thing it does is kick fear out.
Perfect love casts out fear because fear wants to torment us, while love wants to make us whole.
Body,
soul,
spirit.
And guess where all perfect love comes from?
“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
I John 4:16 NKJV
That’s right, our Creator, Savior, and Heavenly Father God. He is the source of all true and perfect love. When we experience and abide (or remain) in His love for us, we can love Him back and be made perfect by His perfect love.
How exactly does this work? It’s simple. Being perfected in love is experiencing God’s love until you’re able to love like Him.
The love of a father is an incredibly powerful thing.
When my oldest son was born I couldn’t stop myself from falling in love with him. All he did was cry, eat, sleep, and make messy diapers, yet he stole more and more of my heart with every breath.
Even as he grew older I would kiss and snuggle him every chance I could get and tell him constantly how much I loved him.
“Ezra, you know what? I love you.”
“Ezra, you’re a gift from the Lord.”
“Ezra, do you know that you are very special to God?”
Once I figured out how, it seemed as if my only goal in parenting was to make him smile and laugh. It didn’t matter how strange of a sound/face I had to make, I would have done anything to be the source of my son’s joy.
Then something amazing happened.
One day, Ezra realized he could be the source of my joy. Whatever he could do to make me smile and laugh, he would do over and over until I scooped him up in my arms in delight.
That was only the beginning. The very ways I showered him with love became the very ways he loved me in return.
“Papi, you know what? I love You!”
“Papi, you are a gift from the Lord.”
“Papi, do you know that you are very special to God?”
Suddenly, I became the one being chased around the room, the one being tickled, the one being snuggled, the one being kissed.
Ezra had experienced so much of my love that he began to love like me. And guess what else?
He became fearless.
Ezra is the most confident and fearless three-year-old boy I know. Seriously. He is comfortable around children and adults alike, he speaks his mind, can often admit to being wrong, apologies quickly, isn’t afraid to show affection, and has no problem exploring and trying new things when papi is around.
Again... he is three years old.
Ezra is confident in my love for him. Whenever he experiences something scary he runs to me and then turns around and confronts his fears head on. When he wakes up in the night afraid, he cries out to me and I come running. I sit him in my lap and after we have prayed and worshipped together he goes right back to sleep as if nothing was ever the matter.
Our Heavenly Father wants us to experience an even more powerful love than my love for Ezra. He wants us to experience and remain in His love until fear has no place in our hearts. To experience and remain in His love until we can’t help but love Him and others the same way He loves us.
He wants us to experience and abide in His perfect love.
How can we experience God’s love?
Slow down: If we are too busy to spend time with our Heavenly Father we miss out on the opportunities to experience His love for us. Getting in the secret place will give us the quality time with God we need to experience His love.
Read His Love Letter: The Bible reveals the heart of God for us. We cannot be frustrated about not hearing from God if we never read what He wrote to us.
Ask: Jesus tells His followers that if we don’t ask, we will never receive. If you want to experience more of God’s love, take time to get alone with Him, and ask Him to show you how much He loves you.
How can we abide (remain) in God’s love?
The Secret Place: When we want to keep relationships healthy we have to carve out time to invest in them. Our relationship with God is no different. If you want to go out on a date, then you need to set a date, a place and a time to meet. The more quality time spent together, the healthier the relationship. Click here for more on the secret place and how to access it.
Practice the Disciplines: There are 12 disciples that a follower of Jesus can practice to grow closer and more in love with Jesus. We have written about each one before but you can get an overview of them all here.
In the same way I want my sons to know and experience how much I love them, Father God wants you to know and experience His love for you.
“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT
Until Next Time,
We Are Ecclesia
