Month: January 2021

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

            I have to admit that when I think of love, fear is not the first thing that comes to mind. The word “love” usually brings up the warm, cuddly feelings of being accepted for who we are and being with someone who we enjoy. It’s those good feelings we have toward someone else. Where’s the fear in that? It’s important to realize what type of love is being discussed. In the New Testament, there are three words for our one English word, “love.” One of the words is eros. When you look at that word, you can see where the word “erotic” came from. This word refers to a sexual type of love. Then there’s phileo, which is a brotherly love. Both of those words are full of feelings. But the word used here is neither of those.

            Agape, the word used in this verse, has a different meaning. The definition of agape is “the active love of God for his Son and his people and the active love his people have for God, each other, and even their enemies.” Did you catch that? It’s active. The definition says absolutely nothing about feelings. It’s what we do. It refers to how we treat others, whether it’s those in our families, strangers, or even our enemies. Agape is a choice we make.

            How can fear be a part of this? Or rather, how can fear be a barrier to agape? There are several ways but one is when we are afraid of what others will think. Have you ever thought you should do something for someone but are afraid others will think you shouldn’t? Or maybe you’re afraid of being rejected by the person you’re trying to help. Perhaps you’re afraid that if you give to someone else, you won’t have enough left for yourself. This verse mentions punishment. Each of these examples is a form of punishment. This is basically saying that when we fear being punished for our actions, we’re choosing to allow that fear to block agape. But when God’s agape in you is matured, the desire to actively love others will take that fear and toss it out on its ear.

            This doesn’t mean that fear won’t creep in. It means that it won’t stay. We may feel the beginnings of fear, but when we choose to actively love God and others, we don’t listen to those voices of fear. Rather, we recognize that those fears are simply the enemy’s pitiful attempt to keep us from experiencing God’s active love. Worse, it’s his attempt to stop God’s active love from being spread around the world through us. But when we ignore that fear and choose to love anyway, we’ll see that fear slink out of our hearts. Then we’ll find ourselves rejoicing in the freedom we have to love fully and completely. That’s when we experience the fullness of God’s perfect love in us and our joy will be full.

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on.” Philippians 3:13

      How often do you live in the past? The answer, of course, is that there’s only one time in which it’s possible to live and that’s the present. But that doesn’t mean that our brains and emotions stay in the present. We may live in the past by idolizing the way things used to be. We may wish we still had a certain person in our lives who has died or chosen to break off the relationship. Maybe we wish our children were small again. Or perhaps a job, a church, a Bible study, or many other possible situations no longer exists and we miss it. The one that I have been experiencing a great deal the last several months is wishing things could get back to “normal.” I’ve heard and said, “I just want my life back.”

      The truth is that what we’re living right now is our life. It may have its challenges, but this (whatever “this” is) is the life that God has for us right now. I’ve heard people wonder if things will ever go back to the way they were. They answer is that they won’t. They never do. Situations change. People change. The future may be worse than the past, or it may be much better. But it won’t be the same.

      Does this mean we should forget the past? God doesn’t seem to think so. Many times in scripture, we are encouraged to remember the past. We’re to remember the mistakes that were made so we can learn from them. Most importantly, we’re to remember God’s works in the lives of His people, and in our own lives. If we don’t remember the past, we’re destined to repeat the mistakes of history. At the very least, we would be required to reinvent the wheel. So I don’t think this verse is suggesting we forget what is behind, as in having no memory of it. Rather, we are to stop living in the past. Instead of wishing things could be the way they used to be, God wants us to strain forward to the future He has for us.

      No one knows what that future holds except for God. So how can we prepare to face something unknown? By clinging to the One who knows the future. He is in the process of preparing us for what lies ahead. If we will just obey Him and follow where He leads, we will be fully prepared for the future He has planned. In time, the past will become a pleasant memory but one we wouldn’t want to repeat. Because we’ll know that we only meet God in the present. And He is always enough.

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:6

            Prayer. We all know we should be spending time in prayer. Ask any child raised in church what God wants us to do and I guarantee that prayer will be on the list. And they’re right. Prayer is key to our relationship with God. Do you have a relationship with any person that you’ve never had a conversation with? Of course not. Maybe you’ve never met them face-to-face, but relationship cannot exist without some form of communication. The same is true of our relationship with God. It’s so important that Jesus knew we would need help with it. In this verse, He gave us four steps of prayer.

1. Go into your room. That doesn’t mean we can’t pray unless we’re in a room dedicated to that purpose. What this is saying is to separate ourselves from the world. We can be in a crowd and still be praying in our room. If our mind and heart are centered on Him instead of the chaos swirling around us, then we are in our prayer room. It also points out the attitude we should take regarding prayer. We should not be praying in order to impress others. When praying out loud, I sometimes find myself praying at others instead of praying to God. I’m more concerned with how my prayer sounds to those listening than I am about communicating my heart to God. If I were to first go into my room, my prayer would be to God and would hopefully draw others to Him.
2. Close the door. Another word for “door” is “entrance.” We need to block the entrance to our minds and hearts so that distractions can’t enter. Again, I’m not saying we have to be locked in a room with no noise, although that can certainly be helpful. But wherever we are and whatever we’re doing, we can choose to guard the entrance to our minds and hearts so the concerns of this world don’t take over, or the lies of the enemy can’t get a foothold. Then the lines of communication with God can be completely open.
3. Pray to your Father. Approach Him, bring your praise to Him, as well as your concerns. Acknowledge that you need Him. Listen for His words to you. Bow in obedience to Him asking for His help to obey. Thank Him for all He’s done and is going to do. Revel in the joy and privilege of entering His throne room and being able to have a conversation with the Almighty God of the universe.
4. Your Father . . . will reward you. How wonderful is that?! God is saying that when we come to Him in prayer, He’s going to reward our faithfulness. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get whatever we ask for at exactly the time we request it. God loves us too much for that. What it means is that we will be rewarded with a closer relationship with God. He will fill us with His joy and His peace. We may or may not get exactly what we have asked of God, but we will always get what is best for us. And we will grow in our faith in Him and in our love for Him and for others.

      Why does God require these steps of us? He hasn’t laid out these steps so He can deny our requests if we don’t follow them. He’s not trying to catch us on a technicality. Rather, he knows it’s for our own good. We need these steps in order to open ourselves up to Him. He’s ready and willing to meet with us at any time. But we have to get distractions out of the way so we can be open to hearing from Him. I encourage all of us to go into our inner rooms and close the doors so we can see the wonders God has prepared for us.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6

            This verse can seem a little confusing at first. After all, we know that God is everywhere. No matter where you go, God is there. You can’t outrun Him, and you can’t hide from Him. Not only is He everywhere, He’s always closer to us than our own heart. He knows us completely. He knew us completely even before He formed us, and He has not left our side since then. He knows our every thought and emotion. He knows every word we’re going to speak before we know we’re going to speak it.

            So if God is everywhere, why do we need to seek Him? If He’s so close that He knows us better than we know ourselves, why do we need to be concerned about calling on Him while He’s near? He’ll always be near, right? God isn’t the One who moves. We do. There’s two different ways we do that.

            We may drift away from God, a little like a riverbank that is slowly eroding away. The stream isn’t getting any bigger. It doesn’t have more water in it. It just continues to flow on it’s merry way every day and night. We don’t really see the erosion happening, but gradually that bank is further and further from the stream. Finally we realize that we can no longer jump from one bank to the other like we used to because they’re too far apart. Or the stream we used to fish in is now too far down from the bank. And we wonder how in the world that happened without our noticing it!

            Sometimes we put up a barrier between us and God. That barrier may take many forms. Maybe we’re angry with Him because something didn’t turn out the way we wanted. Or maybe we’re choosing to not forgive someone who has hurt us and the unforgiveness in our hearts causes bitterness to take root and grown. Perhaps we decide that God is no longer important in our lives and we can do just as well, maybe even better, without Him. These, and others, are all lies the enemy uses to cause us to erect those barriers. Being the perfect gentleman, God will never force His way over the barriers. He’ll wait for us to tear them down.

            Where are you with this? Have you drifted away from the stream of living water? Have you found your time with your Savior eroding away? Is there any part of your life that is hiding behind a barrier, not allowing God in? Don’t delay! Seek Him now before you drift even further! Call out to Him before the barrier gets any taller or thicker. When we seek Him, He will be found. When we cry out, He will hear and answer. Don’t let yourself be drawn into a deep well of complacency, thinking that you’ll get around to God at some later time. Do it now! You’ll never regret calling out to Him. You’ll only regret you didn’t do it sooner.