1 John 4:18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
The Lord has really put “His love” on my heart lately. I have wondered why it is that I have found myself, most of my life, hearing and “knowing” that God loves me and gave His Son to die for my sin, but I have found it difficult to personalize it at times. It’s just like when I was little and I would sit on the steps that led into the house and hug my collie dog and say, “nobody loves me, Spike!” I would cry and pour my heart out to the dog and yet I lived in a very loving home and I was the baby of the family, I was not going without love, but somewhere along the line I couldn’t personalize the love in our home. I sometimes find myself doing the same thing with God.
We were just up in Northern Michigan staying at my sister’s house. They have a little cottage with 1 bedroom in it and of course their house. Abby stayed in the house and Bill and I and the dog stayed in the cottage. Well, 1 night Abby wasn’t feeling very good and after I had prayed with her and went back to the cottage my mind started running. Do you ever have that, where your mind just takes off with all of the “what ifs”? What if she decides to try to come over here in the dark in the middle of the night? What if there’s a bear outside or bats or…….? I started frantically praying about it: “Lord, don’t allow Abby to leave the house! Don’t allow……”. I was starting to panic when I felt the Lord say, (no not an audible voice, in my heart) “Stop! You are praying out of your fear, not out of your confidence in Who I Am and my love for you and my love for Abby!”
Too often we pray out of our fears of the situation at hand or the “what ifs”! Have you ever had the fear that if you truly turn something or someone over to God that something bad is going to happen? Where do those thoughts come from other than satan? He has used that lie since he spoke to Eve! He wants you to fear! He wants you to think that if you trust God, Who loves you, that something bad will come out of that “trusting”! When we pray we need to pray out of the confidence of Who we are praying to and what He says about the situation and His love for us and then we need to trust Him. No, that doesn’t mean that there are no struggles or battles in our lives, unfortunately, it seems to take those things in our lives to grow us up, but it does mean that if we stick close to Him, He will walk with us every step of the way! He loves you and He wants His best for you! There are things that come into our lives that are not His plan because satan is always plotting and scheming to try to take you out, but you can always trust that He will use it for your good if you allow Him to and you walk with Him through it!
If you are struggling to understand His love for you, ask Him to show you. Look for it! I love Toby Mac’s song, “Everything” because it talks about seeing God in Everything, all day! In order to show His love to a hurting world, we must fully grasp His love for us! You cannot give what you don’t have! Seek Him and His love every day!
Quote: “If you judge people, you don’t have time to love them.” ~ Mother Teresa
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Dear Janet,
Your messages are always right on time… I have been struggling with God’s love lately, there has been one really tough issue after another lately and I really feel like He has forgotten about me = doesn’t love me. Thank you so much for sharing about your trip, and what caught my attention was your prayer with your daughter, what a blessing! (Hope she is feeling much better!) I cannot imagine my mother praying with me. God bless you and your ministry <3