For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJ)
The opposite of love is not hate! The opposite of love is fear; hate is just a by product of fear.
“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. 1 John 4:17-19NASB
Have you noticed that when you are afraid you can’t give love? Whatever we are afraid of consumes our attention. Not only can we not give love when are afraid, we can’t even think straight enough to receive the love that someone else may be offering to us.
The greatest enemies to statements of truth are apathy and thoughts that are contrary to those statements of truth. “You might be saying alright how do we get rid of the fear?” First we must settle ourselves down in God’s Word.
But if anyone obeys His word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him:
1 John 2:4:6 (NIV)
Perfect love only comes when we are obeying God the author of perfect love. To see if we are obeying Gods Word we can look at how we are loving those He has placed in our life.
You might be saying “what if someone wrongly accuses me, doesn’t respect me, cheats me or talks down to me am I still obligated to love them?” Some say no!
Some have said to me “Bob you don’t know what that person has done to me!” That is true I don’t and I can’t. But I do know what they are doing to you right now if you don’t forgive them and choose to love them. The Word doesn’t tell us to trust them or agree with what they have done. But if we choose not to love… that still leaves us with the fear.
How are you doing at loving?
Call if we can help.
Bob McDaniel & LaRue McDaniel
Insight Ministries
405-341-1904
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