today, i lay in bed and thought, "i'm afraid of everything?!" and then because dino brought it up yesterday, i thought, perfect love drives out all fear. but then i was confused by the verse. so went on a mini reading spree that brought me to this story:
Once upon a time, Jane was going to get married, and her friend Jemima
decided to send them a text message wishing the happy couple well. She
thought of the verse that we had in our first reading, “There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear”, but, text messages being what they are, she
decided just to send the reference: 1 John 4:18. Unfortunately, in her haste,
she omitted the “1”, showing that it was John’s letter rather than John’s
Gospel, and the verse Jane found when she looked it up in the Gospel read:
“For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your
husband.”
but there were better stuff:
I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips. (so many things are, in a way, manna from heaven that i have become so accustomed to - egg in my fridge! comfy bed. so many things i've now just accepted as the norm, failing to see the beauty of their existence in my life... when in fact they are all such great blessings from Jesus - more praise and joy from this heart shall we?)
2 My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice. (rejoice)
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
( seek the lord
5 Those who look to him are radiant with joy;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking lies.
(i spend so much time thinking i can be good by following rules and norms. recently i wonder what it means to do good. to turn from evil. am i sitting in evil telling myself i'm being good? a good alice? British author C. P. Snow reminds us that more crimes against humanity have been committed in the name of obedience than disobedience. something suffocating it is, dying in manmade goodness. i want to be filled with the spirit that is alive with goodness.)
14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
(
15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
19 A righteous man may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
21 Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems his servants;
no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.
God loves me and protects me and answers when i cry out to/for Him.
"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below-indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38
"Fear is not just a distressing emotion; it is the spiritual force of Satan’s
kingdom. Faith is the force of God’s kingdom. We are saved by faith, we are
healed by faith, and we move mountains by faith. Faith attracts God’s blessings
to you, yet fear attracts Satan’s curses to you. Fear is a force. Remember when
Peter walked on the water. He did fine until he was afraid. His fear sank him.
Fear is the opposite of faith. "And whatever is not of faith is sin" (Romans
14:23). Fear is a sin. According to the Revelation 21:8, the fearful will be cast into the lake of fire.
Fear is that serious! We have to resist it like we would resist any other sin. Yet,
many Christians do not even consider it a sin. Yet it is! "
i'm starting to wonder these ideas about opposite. maybe it's more an opposite spirit so much as opposite as two sides of the same coin. it's God or not God.
2 Tim 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love…
"Let us ask an important question: why do we fear? We are afraid because we
feel powerless. We feel that we can’t change something. We fear because we
feel helpless. As long as you have power to change some evil, then fear cannot
take over. "
So Paul confidently says: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Phil 4:13
"When we are tormented by
fear, our focus is self-centered and not Christ-centered. We are looking at the
forces that threaten us in light of our weaknesses and inadequacies, rather
than looking at them in light of the supernatural power of God. When we focus
on the fact that, as a Christian, Christ is our very life, we can say with Paul: I
can do all things Phil. 4:13 "
I don't want to be miserable, paralyzed in fear that I lose out on life. nope nope nope.
Matthew 8:26 But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"
I want to be made perfect (not simply a squeaky stagnant, don't touch me clean perfect, but a fulfilled round round circle delivered perfect. not that i should be unholy, but that i should not be afraid to give up princehood in egypt or to touch the leper) in Jesus and fully experience his perfect love. God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. This is when we love other Christian brothers and sisters because he loved us first. If we don't love others, how can we love God?
"Jesus said, "Men’s heart’s will fail them for fear." You may not die as quickly as
this freshman did, but you will experience another kind of death. You will
begin to lose courage. Without courage you will never be able to win over your
battles. Isaiah prophesied what fear could do. "Whoever flees at the sound of
terror will fall into a pit" (Isa 24:18).
God told Gideon to send home all the men who feared. God knows that fear
will bring failures. It’s time that you purpose to live fear-free. Whenever you
notice fear in your life, then resist it by quoting the Word of God.
Hebrews 13:6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?" "
I love education because it's a way of learning more about Jesus. my coworker believes knowledge is enlightenment and will save us. something about that bothers me. i like the sound of it, but it seems incomplete. i think it depends on what you know. but even then, i will never know enough. knowledge and reason will never fully drive out fear because knowledge without love is really not that powerful. i will never understand enough on my own to face the world and all its mysteries. to face the future and all of life's curve balls. "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray aobut everything. tell God what you need and thank him for all he ahs done. Then you will experience God's peace, with exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." - Phillippians 4:6-7. It's God's love that drives out fear - not any understanding we have. it's His peace that guards our hearts and minds and sets us free. it is hope, not knowledge, because the amount of knowledge we have will always be limited. hope is not limitless in its transcience or wishy-washy nature. hope is certain. but it's certain in something that is limitless. then again it's not even hope, not even faith - but the one in whom we hope. it's not really how we believe or anything about us, but in whom we believe that matters in setting us free/ delivering us/ saving us. of course, i'm not a perfect philosopher, and even as i think, i think it's a little ironic that i'm writing about this since my knowledge/reason must be limited (even in my capacities for thought). but i guess these are just thoughts mixed with heart and breaths of a little girl in the arms of a wonderful God so that whatever it is lacking in full understanding, it is subsidized a wee bit in joy and thankfulness and peace.
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