Love: The Antidote For Fear

There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection 19 We love Him, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:18-19 (AMP)

There are two opposing forces that every person on the earth will be faced with in life. The power that drives them cannot be denied and will affect every one of us at some time or another. This is the power of love and the power of fear.

Love and fear
The power of love and the power of fear are two definite factors that rule the earth. Each person is managed by one or the other at various times through the course of their life. People tend to categorize these as only feelings, e.g. if you are feeling good you can love somebody or if your circumstance seems out of your control you may experience fear. Love is not ruled or governed by feelings; the power of love is governed by God and it is the greatest force that we could ever operate in. The world’s system runs in opposition to the love of God. The operator of fear is no other than Satan himself and it is in this arena is where he mostly thrives. He manipulates by fear, torment and deception. He is ruthless and Godless and tries his best to use people’s emotions and feelings against them.

God is love
“And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.” 1 John 4:16 (AMP)

This scripture says God is love. He doesn’t have to prove anything to us than what He has already done. We were ignorant of the creation before we read about it in His word. We take everything for granted. We don’t have to cry for the sun to come up each morning to give us life. We don’t have to plead for the food, vegetables and the fruit we eat to grow. We don’t have to beg for the rain to water the earth and sustain us. If God even gave us the air to breathe freely, surely we can take Him at His word and apply it to our lives. We should begin to love Him more than we did yesterday and love others even when they aren’t loving to us. Amen! God is good all the time.

Love personified in the flesh
God even still proved His love toward us. In Romans 5:8 it says “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This was God’s love personified in the flesh.

We rebelled against God in ignorance. Before we knew Christ we all blasphemed His name one time or another, we blamed God for all of our short comings whether we want to admit it or not. “God is love” and as our text says, “love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror”! It also says “We love Him, because He first loved us”. His love is unconditional, and there is no more we can do against God or for Him that will make Him love us any less or more than He already does.

Fear on the other hand opposes all that love stands for. It opposes everything that is peaceful; all that is faithful and honest and the list goes on and on. Through sin came fear and fear brought torment and that extended to every evil plan of Satan. Satan is the author of fear and torment. He is a spirit of fear and he thrives on it. God, in contrast, operates in love.

Jesus said “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Let me put it this way, God is love and love is God, and it is love that God is moved by. On the other hand, what drives a shark to blood is what drives Satan to fear. Satan is a murderer a thief and a spirit of fear, we must give him no place in our lives, but resist with the authority given to us by Christ. We must allow the love of God to work its way deep into our souls and flow through us like a river. We must purpose to love and pray for those who persecute us, in doing this we will overcome the toughest trials and tests because love conquers all. Hallelujah!

“Love is patient, love is kind and  is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NASU)

The first sign of being separated from God is fear! Fear involves torment. Webster’s dictionary defines torment as extreme pain or anguish of body or mind. Jesus suffered such agony of mind when He was in the garden of Gethsemane Luke 22:44 says “and being in an agony [of mind], He prayed [all the] more earnestly and intently, and His sweat became like great clots of blood dropping down upon the ground.

Adam brought sin, fear, torment and death into the Garden of Eden and it spread throughout the whole world (Romans 5:12). In 1 Corinthians 15:45 the Bible calls Jesus the last Adam. He became a life-giving spirit for us. He resisted every sin, fear and torment even to the point of sweating great drops of blood on behalf of you and me. By receiving Him and what He did for us, we could come back to God, never to be separated from Him ever again and walk in the God kind of love, free from fear.

Through Christ’s suffering, God was showing the world how far we were removed from Him by sin and fear that took place in the Garden of Eden. God loves us so very much! He had to watch His very own Son go through the agony and pain just to have the relationship He once ordained in the Garden of Eden with His first family. The key to life is true love this is the love of God and it expels all torment that fear brings. Hallelujah to God for the wonder of His love!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Bro. Peter Rahme

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