Journal Entry ~ 04/13/19

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. - 1 John 4:18-19

If we accept and allow the perfect love of our Father in heaven into our hearts, we should have no fears. We are told in this verse that perfect love casts out fear. There should be nothing controlling our thoughts or paralyzing our actions.  When we understand how we are loved with a perfect love, we should have no fears. Yet we do. And those fears cast out the perfect love because perfect love and fear cannot exist together. 

When we give into our fears, we give power to our fears over God. When our fears consume us, our actions communicate God is not the most important, fear is.  When our fears dictate our thoughts and our behavior, we block the peace that surpasses all understanding from washing over us, we intercept the blessings He has for our lives, we put a hand up to His protection and His strength, we say He is not enough. When we give in to our fears, we put all our trust in those fears, and we fail to acknowledge He is the King of the universe, sovereign over all. 

God loves you. His desire is for your good - always. Everything He allows into your life is to draw you near to Him and to transform you into His image. He will bring you up against your greatest fears to reveal this to you. He wants your obedience and your trust in the face of the most difficult circumstances. The truth is, when you let your fears dictate who you trust, you are holding up a hand to God and telling Him that He is wrong - that is great wickedness. 

Sometimes we can get to the point where we acknowledge our fears, but we fail to recognize the great sin that they are. We downplay the severity of giving in to our fears, dismissing the sin issue because everyone has fears. We don’t see that they are an affront to the King, and we don’t see the sin. Giving in to your fears is violating the first commandment - you shall have no other God’s before me. When you give power to your fears, when you refuse to do something because of fear, or your fears control your behavior and thoughts in some way, you are trusting in yourself over God. You have placed yourself in a place of greater importance than your God. 

To find freedom from your fears, you must confess the sin and repent - you cannot simply stop at acknowledging. Fear is a tool of the enemy and it is the root of evil. Repent and confess your fears, and discover the perfect love our Father in Heaven has for you. 


Press on ~ you are loved 💗

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