…Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment… 1 John 4:18
My heart is recovering. God had to break my heart in order to call out my fear. Then I had to look at it until I could see it from God’s perspective: tragic and painful, but small. There is no fear bigger than God’s perfect love.
In Gethsemane, Christ was afraid of sin, afraid it might contaminate Him, separate Him from the Father, and then destroy Him and humanity. It tempted Him to abandon the plan. But at His Father’s prompting, He chose to love us at any sacrifice. He trusted himself to the Father, faced the fear, and drank the cup of our guilt to the dregs. On the cross He wrestled with it, but didn’t stop loving and choosing us, didn’t stop obeying His Father, though it broke his heart and killed him. All according to plan.
He did it. He proved it. Surrendered to divine love, His humanity was perfectly selfless, even to death. After that, death had no power over Him. From then on He could face any fear, temptation, sin, guilt, even death on our behalf, and through perfect love dismantle fear’s power over us and enable us to conquer it. From now on, when united with divine power, human love can become as perfectly selfless in our life as Christ is in His.
If you are afraid of anything, and fear tempts you to not love God, or yourself, or others, call on Jesus to bring you His perfect love to help you resist that temptation. He will always show up instantly at this request, and help you face the fear, until it is small and insignificant, so you can easily resist it. Call Christ every time you are tempted to fear, even a little bit. Call again and again until it stops coming back. Your humanity combined with Christ’s divinity is invincible.
God, I don’t want to be afraid of anything anymore. Please take every fear away. Replace it with your love. I surrender to you. Amen
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