“There
is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,” (1 John
4:15a, NIV).
If
the love of God does not control my heart and mind, fear will rise to
defeat my faith. When the love of Christ is perfected in my heart,
fear cannot claim me. If I grow spiritually and allow His love to
perfect and change me for His purpose, I will discover that in my
weakness I have His strength. When His love owns my heart, fear
cannot claim my mind. Letting Him have control frees my mind from the
constant struggle of how I need to make things right, and allows Him
to make things right. It ends the constant battle that I have to
prove myself or make a point. With God in control, I can be free from
the burden of fear that rises constantly to say that I can't do
something or I am not good enough.
Fear
keeps me from knowing and understanding God's perfect love for me. It
informs me that I will never change and my life will always be the
same. It keeps me in a state of limbo where nothing good has an
opportunity to take root. “We are a product of our past,” Rick
Warren says, “but we don't have to be prisoners of it.” I choose
to not allow the past to dictate my life now. I choose to allow Him
to break the chains that bind me to it. I constantly surrender myself
to Him–my time, my work, my priorities, my thoughts, my ideas, my
preconceptions, my emotional pains of the past and worries about what
has not yet happened. I choose to believe only Him and step out in
faith. Fear will not rule my life when His perfect love claims me.
He
is Truth. I am not. He is Life. I am not. He is Peace. I have none.
He is Joy. I can't create it. He is the great “I AM”, and I am
just me. Each day I lay myself upon His altar, and make an offering
of my life–of any strength and my many weaknesses. I yield any
strength to His control so that He might use it for His glory. I
yield my weaknesses so that His power, exemplified in my life, might
honor only Him (2 Corinthians 12:9). I wish to offer Him everything
that I have and all that I am not. It is in giving myself away that I
shall receive. I shall receive His “ALL” instead of the little
that I am. With His love completely changing my life, there is no
room left for fear. There is only Him, and there is only peace.
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