There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (I John 4:18-21)
There is so much fear in the world, in our country, in our communities today. Like the corona virus that gave birth to its latest manifestation, fear spreads from person to person.
God knows that the enemy uses fear to paralyze us, to steal our joy, and to kill our peace. Fear waters down our faith, until there’s none left. Fear makes it easy to compromise our values and morals. Fear makes us love ourselves more than others, take care of our own and not give a thought to others who are in need. Fear causes us to walk in disobedience to God’s laws. Fear robs us of our peace. Fear torments and tortures us.
How do we defeat fear? We defeat fear with love. As it says in the verses above, Love casts out fear. Our Heavenly Father knows exactly what we have need of, and He tells us not to worry about what we will eat, or drink, or what we will wear. Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and He will give us all that we need (Matthew 6:25-34). We defeat fear by resting securely in the knowledge that God’s love is perfect. When we walk in God’s perfect love, we can more easily and more readily love our brother. Remember that love is an action word.
The Spreading Love & Hope Challenge this week is to listen to the song below, read Matthew 6:25-34, and reach out to help your fellow man as he or she is also struggling with the fear that is trying to choke out the hope that lies in them.
