Perfect Love

Perfect love casts out fear.

I don't know if you have heard this statement before. But it's true. These five words come to mind a lot lately. In many different contexts I find it's a truth that penetrates and challenges me to the core. God has not been welcomed in to those deep places, where doubts and fears still linger and lie.

There's this irrational part of my heart that seems to believe that the moment I totally surrender everything to God, he will take something I love away. More to the point- SOMEONE.

They say becoming a mother is like giving your heart legs and letting it go walk around the world. It's scary because something could happen to that precious little child- and I don't know if my heart could recover.

So we mothers fret and fear and come up with all sorts of strategies to keep these little ones safe. That's good, thats our job, let's minimise the risks. But there is that tendency to shield too much, to obsess and to control.

So many times when Shane takes the kids somewhere, to the park, for a walk, a bike ride. I think about the risks, I make suggestions towards everyone's safety. I fear. I imagine something happening... the unthinkable. Why do these fears haunt me so? I constantly battle fears. I know from the outside I appear as probably about as relaxed and easy going and un-fretful as mothers pretty much get. But I struggle all the time, I have these thoughts, these fears; but I keep them in check. I pray. I let go. I trust... Most of the time.

I know perfect love casts out fear. I want that perfect love. I want to know God's love so deeply, so fully so completely that the fears that lurk in the deepest recesses of my doubts will melt in the heat of his unshakeable love.

But I know that trusting in his love doesn't guarantee a life free from pain and loss, no. Jesus actually PROMISED that we would have trouble!

He said; 'in this world you WILL have trouble',

well, great! Thanks for that revelation...tell me something I DIDN'T know! Well, here it is...

'take heart, I have overcome the world!'

I don't think we fully comprehend this statement or what Jesus did to prove it was so. He literally faced, head on, what would be the greatest fear of any individual or parent. He died a brutal death, though innocent- but which is worse? To die that death, or to be the father watching your son die? God the father and God the son faced our greatest fears for us. Not so we would never face troubles of our own, but so that they could OVERCOME the worst possible outcome for us. Thereby freeing us from the fear of death. The sting is gone. Yes we die. But we have the hope of eternal life! yes there is pain in this life, But thanks to Jesus we have healing too! Love and Life and Healing are more potent than hatred, death and destruction. Most importantly he promised he would always be with us. He will never forsake us, even if others do.

You see! God has the final word! Though so often in this life it looks like the good suffer the most. Injustice abounds. But ITS NOT OVER YET, and he gives us hope in this life. As we trust in a love so powerful that the creator of universes was embodied in flesh, to know what it is like to be limited to a human body, to feel pain, to be betrayed, to suffer loss. What an amazing God, that loved us so much he became one of us!

As I grow to know and love and trust my God and Saviour I find my heart is filled with his love more and more. The fears that held a tight grip on my heart are loosening with each truth that I embrace. This is true freedom; You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free...

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. that whosoever shall believe in him, will not perish but have everlasting life" John 3:16.

I hope you take him at his word, as I have and am learning to do so more, day by day.