Perfect love casts out fear

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  We love, because He first loved us.              --1 John 4:18-19

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.  --John 1:16-17

I heard a song this week that spoke to me.  Here is the link: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1srs1YoTVzs
And here are the lyrics:

Fear Is a Liar

Zach Williams

When he told you you're not good enough
When he told you you're not right
When he told you you're not strong enough
To put up a good fight
When he told you you're not worthy
When he told you you're not loved
When he told you you're not beautiful
That you'll never be enough

Fear, he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
'Cause fear he is a liar

When he told you were troubled
You'll forever be alone
When he told you you should run away
You'll never find a home
When he told you you were dirty
And you should be ashamed
When he told you you could be the one
That grace could never change

Fear he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
'Cause fear he is a liar

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Oh, let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Oh, fear he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
'Cause fear he is a liar

'Cause fear he is a liar

Songwriters: Jason Ingram / Zach Williams / Jonathan Lindley Smith 

Oswald Chambers said, "The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else."  How many times have I been paralyzed by fear?  Not trusting God for His provision, His power, or His word causes me to be wary of all things outside of my control.  Fear of losing a job, fear of losing a loved one's respect, fear of being exposed in my sin, fear of so many things that it's a wonder I have ever accomplished anything. 

Perfect love casts out all fear.

It is truly a wonder that God loves me, as imperfect as I am.  Yet here is a promise from Hebrews 10:14, "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." We who hold to the Covenant of grace, who have been sanctified or set apart by that grace, are by that same grace being perfected.  This state of perfection is made possible because "He first loved us."

Perfect love casts out all fear.

Most of our fears center on what other people will think of us, or what they will say to us, or even what they may do to us.  We must remember Hebrews 13:6 (which is a direct quote from Psalm 118:6), which says, "We can confidently say, THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID.  WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?"

Perfect love casts out all fear.

He loves us perfectly, as imperfect as we are.  The Bible says, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them.  He then says, And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Hebrews 10: 16-17)  Amazing, isn't it?

Methodist missionary and theologian E. Stanley Jones said,

A Johns-Hopkins doctor says that, "We do not know why it is that the worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact."  But I, who am simple of mind, think I know we are inwardly constructed, in nerve and tissue and brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear.  God made us that way.  Therefore, the need of faith is not something imposed on us dogmatically, but it is written in us intrinsically.  We cannot live without it.  

St. Augustine said, "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in You."  The enemy knows this about us, and therefore gives us more temporal things in which our faith can rest.  Dr. Jones was correct, we are made to have faith, but mis-placed faith is dangerous.

It is only those who reject the perfect love of God who should truly be afraid.  "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?....It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  (Hebrews 10:29, 31)

Friends, do not fear what man can do to you.  That kind of fear is a liar.  Fear God--that is, revere and honor Him enough to live by His words and ask for His divine grace and mercy.