Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Love Casts Out Fear

Even though a believer won’t be judged for his sin (We already were, and Jesus paid the penalty for them on the cross), still there is a great fear of judgment since we all must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. The fear of judgment is real even if the Judgment Seat of Christ is a rewards banquet. After all, we’ve all sat at those thing where others were rewarded and we were left out feeling awfully self-conscious by our empty hands (We want to slide under that table). I certainly don’t want that to happen to me.

Well, if you don’t, then you better check your motives and get to work. God only rewards those who attempt things for Him, not those who sit on their duff. I’ve heard people say, “But I’m afraid to witness, afraid to stand up for the Lord. How will God will be able to reward me?” And they are greatly afraid.

Well, these verses in 1st John tell us we can exchange fear with confidence, and they aren’t the only ones.

Romans 8:15 says,
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’”

2nd Timothy 1:7 says,
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

But how do we exchange fear for confidence? The answer is in 1st John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” Let me explain how this works:
When I was really little, my folks took us on a camping trip to a lake with a sharp drop-off. I couldn’t swim and soon stepped over the drop-off and couldn’t touch bottom. I screamed and flailed in the deep water. My mother, who saw me, dove in to save me, except she couldn’t swim either. Her love for me overcame her fear of water, and she forgot that she couldn’t swim. My dad got all angry and jumped in clothes and all to save, not me, but my mother. You see, my mother had forgotten: I was wearing a life jacket.

But the moral is, love disregards the obstacles and overlooks the dangers. When we love, we’ll boldly serve God. We won’t be worrying all the time about the consequences and inconveniences. Our love for Him will overrule all that.

And our love for the lost as we consider their desperate condition will compel us. Like my mother, we won’t think about the dangers to ourselves. We will dive in to rescue them, just as Jesus dove into this world from heaven to seek and to save the lost. Love does that – it cast out fear.

David Brainard is a great example. He was a missionary to the American Indians during the 1700s, and this quote comes from David Otis fuller’s book, Valiant for the Truth:
“Wilderness hardships, lack of proper food, overwork, and a consuming passion to win as many as possible in his lifetime drained Brainard’s meager physical resources. He was never a well man, even as a youth, and his dairy is full of pathetic jottings on the subject: ‘I felt my bodily strength fail’. . . or ‘Shattered with a violent fever.’”

This quote is from Brainard’s own diary:
“At night, I lost my way in the wilderness and wandered over mountains, through swamps, and most dangerous places. I was greatly exposed, much pinched with cold, with sickness at my stomach, so that every step was distressing to me. Thus I have frequently lain without the whole night, but God has preserved me. Such hardships serve to wean me from the earth, and will make heaven the sweeter.”

For Brainard, no price was too great for the love of his Lord.

Paul’s example is no different:
Look at 2nd Corinthians 11:23-29:
“Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?”

Paul never gave up. He kept on pushing to the end. Why? It was all for the love of God. As we said, the answer is in 1st John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.”

My friend do you love God? Do you love Him enough to serve Him?

No comments:

Post a Comment