“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in 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, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love Him, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:15-19
Fear is conquered by Agape love. John tells us that as God’s love for us grows to full maturity, fear will be cast out of our lives. The presence of fear is evidence that the fruit of agape love is not fully grown in our lives.
When we confess our faith in Jesus as the Son of God, we become members of God’s family, and He takes up residence in us through the Holy Spirit. We are now in Christ, and He is in us. This means that we are now in a position to intimately know and experience God’s love for us. His agape love is the essence of all of the fruits of the Spirit. Love produces joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Fruit grows over time as long as it is connected to a life source. By faith, we are reconnected to the only true Source of Life, God Himself. As we learn to rest and receive His love by faith, it grows to full maturity into the same love that God has for us. It is His love in us, flowing through us.
Fear and love cannot coexist; they are diametrically opposed to one another. Full grown love not only trumps fear, it picks it up and casts it out of our lives. If we choose to not abide in the truth of God’s love for us, we are choosing to live in the bondage of unbelief. Behind ALL fear is unbelief. Satan loves to trick us into measuring God’s love for us by our level of personal peace and comfort. If our circumstances are stress free, then God loves us. As soon as something goes wrong, Satan uses the power of sin to whisper accusations against God’s love in our ears. If we fail to take these accusing thoughts captive, we become trapped in the lies of unbelief. Remember that the only evidence that we need of God’s amazing love for us is the Cross! The Apostle Paul lists many of his hardships in 2 Corinthians 11, but in spite of his hardships, he exhorts us to know that no circumstance can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:28-39).
How do we grow in our knowledge and experience of His intimate love? By faith, every day we have to set our minds on the truth of His love for us. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to search us and show us the lies that we believe about His love. Then, we need to renounce these lies and proclaim the truth that He loves us beyond measure. Living in fear, paralyzes us and keeps us in bondage. Living in His love empowers us to move forward and stay in step with His Spirit. Memorizing and meditating on verses that declare His great love helps to free our minds of the accusing thoughts that Satan and the power of sin throw at us. We need to start to practice praising Him for His great love for us. We need to rest and receive His love every moment of every day. A great way to set our minds on this powerful truth is to pray this simple prayer of faith, “Lord Jesus, I choose to receive and live in Your amazing love for me. Thank You for loving me and enabling me to love You in return.”