Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Fear keeps us from being leveraged for God’s Kingdom; it hinders our ability to live abundant spiritual lives. Fear was Adam and Eve’s first response after the fall, and it has haunted us every day since. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, God went looking for Adam.

“Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.’” -Genesis 3:9-10, NASB

Adam and Eve’s sin caused a breach between themselves and God, and that breach led to feelings of shame and fear.

Since then, Satan has continued to use far to keep us from living God’s way. Fear is such an important spiritual issue that Scripture addresses it more than 300 times. Why? Because God knows how often fear keeps us from experiencing His best in our lives.

You may be facing some of these fears today:

• Fear of rejection: If we identify with Jesus Christ too vocally, our friends may think we’re intolerant and withdraw from us.
• Fear of failure: If we try to do what God wants us to do, we might not succeed, and we don’t know if we can handle failure.
• Fear of financial loss: In these uncertain times, we fear losing all of our assets. So we fail to give to the needy when God asks us to.

When we fear someone or something more than we fear God, that tells us whom we really follow and what we really worship. When fear causes us to compromise our values, we miss out on what God wants to do in our lives. Then God may choose to leverage someone else to fulfill the call that we failed to fulfill.

In this time of COVID, we know who and what is the enemy, but we can’t see it. Stay focused on the One who can see COVID but has us in the grip of His grace.

The Bible says, “The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed (Deuteronomy 31:8, NASB).” The basis of our ability to live abundant lives of faith is God’s perfect love, which casts out all 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 4:18, NASB

If Jesus takes my life from this planet, it’s only because He wants to give me something better: His presence.

Fearful people focus on themselves; faithful people focus on God.

“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” -Colossians 3:2, NASB