*Text: 1 John 4: 18*
“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.”
Our anchor text reveals to us that love is an antidote to fear and the question that comes to mind immediately is what type of love is this? According to 1 John 4: 7, this is the love that proceed from God into the lives of those who surrenders to Him and accept His offer of adoption to become His son. If you read downward from 1 John 4: 7, this loves manifest itself in our life as brotherly love. The manifestation of this love in our hearts is one of the genuine proof in our life that we are genuinely and truly born again. And that is the major message of the Apostle John in this passage that if we are truly born again, the love of God will flow into us and become resident in us and that love will manifest in our relationships with other believers. There is no one that is truly born again that will walk in hatred because this love is strong enough to overcome bitterness and hate that may have existed in our hearts in the past.
Building on this argument, the author of this epistle reveals in our text a major feature or peculiarity of this God kind of love, which is that this love has capacity to cast out fear. It cannot co-exist with fear and so when it comes into our lives it cast out fear. Fear of uncertainty in our walk with God, fear regarding the final outcome of our life here on earth, fear of what might be the likely consequences of our new found relationship with God – that is, the fear of persecution, fear of trials and fear of the unknown and even the fear of death. Whatever may be the fear that has held us captive for years the moment we surrender our lives to Jesus, God becomes our Father, His love flows into our lives and conducts a deliverance session on us to rid our lives of the spirit of fear that as held us captive.
According to our text, the true test that we have the love of God in us therefore is that we become free from fear and in place of fear we receive boldness and confidence to serve the Lord, to do His will and to walk before Him all the days of our life (2 Tim. 1: 7). Fear is alien to the child of God, it is to be found in the unrighteous and the wicked, it is the character of genuine children of God to be bold, boldness as a result of the love of God that is resident in us (Prov. 28: 1)
Are you living in bondage to fear? Fear as a result of the present dangers that surround us, fear of what the future holds, fear of death or fear of the afterlife. Jesus can take away your fears and break its hold over your life. He has promised to grant rest to all those who will come to Him (Matt. 11: 28), and so when you surrender to Him, He will grant you rest from fear. If you claim to have surrendered your life to Him and yet you are still in bondage to fear, out text says that is evidence that you are yet to experience the fullness of His perfect love.
Totally surrender your life and everything you hold dearly to Him, fully trust Him and you will see Him transform your life totally, all your fears will disappear and you will be totally free. Shalom
Prayer Points
1. Father, I thank you for your love that flowed into my life when I surrendered my life to you as my Lord
2. Thank you Father for not just loving me but also giving me the capacity to genuinely love others
3. Father I have been born of you and so hatred has no place in my life, I therefore command every seed of hatred to die in my life in Jesus name
4. Father by reason of your love in my life, fear has no place in my life and so I reject every trace of fear in my life in Jesus name
5. Father in place of fear I receive the spirit of boldness and confidence to serve you and to do your will completely in Jesus name.
Amazing article it is.i like it.