January 3 – There’s No Fear in Love
Fear and love cannot exist side by side in the human heart. Though the Psalmist tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it is only the beginning.
John discovered that perfect love casts out fear and that true wisdom is gained inside of your growing confidence in his affection. If you don’t love God, you would be well served to fear him. Once, however, you learn what it really means to love him, you will never need to fear him again.
As you grow secure in his love, you will come to know who God is. And knowing him, you will want to be like him. Discover that, and your calamities will never again drive you to question God’s concern for you or whether you’ve done enough to merit his affection.
Instead of fearing he has turned his back on you, you will be able to rest in his love in the moments you need him most.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear . . .
1 John 4:18 (NIV)
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This reflection is taken from Wayne Jacobsen’s new book, Live Loved Free Full. Since the delivery of the print edition was delayed due to COVID issues in production, we are posting daily here until it is available. The e-book is already out on Kindle if you prefer that version. If you haven’t pre-ordered your hardback copy yet, you can do so here.
Hi Wayne. I have been SO touched by “He Loves Me”. I came across it in the Fall of 2019.
As I began to read it — I started underlining — and then crying through almost every page. Your words
were tearing a hole in a well constructed WALL of self protection that I have slowly built over many
years — to try to keep away the pain of shame, failure, condemnation, self criticism, — and FALSE ideas of a God who was never going to be really satisfied with what I did, or with me, period.
I am now 76 yrs. old — have been a Christian most of my adult life. Perceived God more as a deep
powerful, inner emotion — or things I pushed myself to learn ABOUT Him — that pressed me into an intellectual inner consent with beautiful words, ideas, feelings, — NOT a living Person – Who really loves me as I am, without me trying to do or be something, or someone else, trying to please Him, convince Him that I’m worth paying attention to. That paints an abbreviated picture of how I’ve lived inside, out of sight.
I am now listening to the Transitions series on YouTube. I began by taking profuse notes — and am now just listening to what is being said. You can imagine how many times I hear myself saying, “What?”
I have filled my head with so much information — trying to find every flaw, fix every thing that isn’t just right, etc. etc. — all my life, one way or another. I cannot approach the Lord that way, any longer.
That never was His plan, or purpose for me. I am beginning to “see” that — but I am so blocked emotionally, by my own doing — I don’t know how to be quiet and just know and receive from Him, the Living One. I am overwhelmed with hidden expectations that I have laid upon myself — I don’t know HOW to lay them down. Shame, is the most familiar feeling when I need to talk to Him. But I DO it anyway!
If you have any specific teaching you’ve done that you would recommend to me — I’d be so glad to
listen to it.
Who God really is — is the issue, isn’t it? That’s been a jumbled, distorted, misdirected pursuit for too many years for me. It is startling that you say He desires to build a relationship with me — how do I let Him do that – after all these years of life believing that precious reality was truly all up to me?
He indeed is relentless in His pursuit of me — otherwise, I would have walked away
for good, a long time ago.
Your sister in Christ,
Gloria H.
II have been blessed with so much in life that makes being alive — a good thing to experience. So much has been so-o-o-o-o good. Just enough struggles here and there to know that I didn’t come through them
by my own effort.
Gloria, your story touches my heart. I’m so blessed that at your age you’re still learning new things and upending those untruths that religion taught you. All of that takes a ton of courage and I’m so grateful it’s happening in your heart. I know it takes time for our inner life to break free of the tension of religion and come to rest in the reality of his love. He’s doing that work inside you and, yes, it always takes longer than we would prefer, but that’s because it’s a deep work that opens the doorways into his freedom. Walking past the feeling of shame to “do it anyway” is an important part of that. Ignore shame. It will die because it’s an inner construct of our old nature, not part of our new one. I don’t know what else to recommend here. Transitions or Engage at Lifestream.org are probably the best tools I have, but truly this is a work of the Spirit rewriting the scripts in your heart and no book is going to replace that. You’re in my prayers, Gloria. His love IS taking root in you.