Today, Sunday September 5
Are You Being Tormented by Fear?
1 John 4:17-19 “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment (or torment), and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”
Fear is actually the beginning of torment. We torment ourselves as we contemplate what lies ahead. For years my wife suffered acutely as she contemplated a visit to the dentist because of a childhood experience with an uncaring dentist. Then one day we found a caring dentist that she trusted and who gave her excellent service. She was able to “cast out” her fear of going to the dentist.
Think of how person without Christ must suffer as they contemplate the Day of Judgment. But since we as a believer can have boldness in the Day of Judgment, we can have boldness as we face life today, for there is no situation of life today that begins to compare with the terrible severity of the Day of Judgment.
God wants His children to live in an atmosphere of love and confidence, not fear and torment. We need not fear life or death, for we are being perfected in the love of God. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35, 37-39). Imagine! Nothing in all creation—present or future—can come between us and God's love!
The perfecting of God's love in our lives is usually a matter of several stages. When we were lost, we lived in fear and knew nothing of God's love. After we trusted Christ, we found a perplexing mixture of both fear and love in our hearts. But as we grew in fellowship with the Father, gradually the fear vanished and our hearts were controlled by His love alone. An immature Christian is tossed between fear and love; a mature Christian rests in God's love. A growing confidence in the presence of God is one of the first evidences that our love for God is maturing.
This morning as I was preparing for today’s chat about how a growing, maturing love in our hearts and lives will cast out all of our fears, I could not help but keep singing over and over again the old classic song, The Love of God. If you don’t know the tune that goes with it, I sure you can find it on YouTube. Read the words carefully and be reminded of how great God’s love is for you is today!
The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.
Could we with ink the ocean fill And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill And every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole Tho stretched from sky to sky. Refrain
O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure The saints and angel’s song.
My friend, please don’t continue to be tormented by your fears, but today accept and enjoy this wonderful love of God through Christ Jesus!
God bless!