1 John 4:18 No Fear in Love
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

1 John 4:18

New King James Version (NKJV)

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.

Perfect love is God's love and is the blinding light that pierces through the dark waters of fear. When we envelope ourselves within His holiness, He shrouds us in His protection of peace. How can fear get in when we are bathed by such a brilliant truth?

People fear for many reasons. Some wear fear like a cloak and others cover areas of their lives with fear. It seems to be the weapon the enemy uses most often to paralyze believers into being ineffective Christians.

Have you ever felt torment in your soul? I have. For any of us to say we never feel fear is a lie or serious denial. It is a fallacy to think that Christians don't have fear. I once heard that there are 365 fear verses in the bible and if that is true then it makes sense why fear is such a big problem for most. Fear is the one thing we will struggle with; maybe even most of our lives.

FFear cannot stay where there is love and when we make a choice to live in God, it is living in love because it says in the Bible that God is love. Fear comes from lies and God wants to deal with those lies and in so doing eliminate fear. The only way to rid ourselves of fear is to stay hidden under His wings and allow truth to rise up within us.

Challenge: Check yourself. In any way, is there fear or distrust? Take it to the Lord. There is no shame in having fear, but here is shame in letting it have us.

God bless

Marni

Go on to: 1 John 5:21
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The purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.