Ok, so there is a lot of good grain to glean from just this one verse.
"THERE IS NO FEAR IN LOVE." Let's think about that for a moment. Good ahead, look at it again. Sound it out slowly.
I think it means there is no fear in love. What is love? A couple months ago we talked about love - well, I talked about love - didn't really get any comments back in the comments section... but I know I'm not talking to myself ;) Love is patient, kind, doesn't envy, boast, or is proud. Doesn't dishonor others or is self-seeking (not out to please man), not easily angered, doesn't keep record of wrongs (ouch), rejoices with truth. It protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres. And it's greater than faith and hope.
It's fear of man vs. fear of God. Here's the difference, the first time I stood up and taught in front of a large crowd - I was afraid. I felt like my knees were buckling and my voice was wavering along with my stomach quivering. After the initial butterflies, I got on a roll, my eyes were on the Lord and my ears were listening for His Voice and I was fine. I felt all that, nobody saw or heard it. I was like, wow - I thought I sounded terrible, but the people heard what the Lord wanted them to hear (and I wasn't as bad as I thought).
Now, let's take the same scenario, but I could feel (discern) a judgmental spirit in the room. I felt afraid and
took my eyes and ears off of the Lord and opened the door for the fear of man to step right in. I lost my train of thought a few times and just barely got through the teaching.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist (no offense to any rocket-scientists out there) to figure out what the difference was. I looked at and let fear of judgment (punishment, ridicule, man) overtake me because my eyes were on myself, instead of trusting and hoping and honoring others. Instead of looking at the people through the eyes and ears of THE LORD, I used MY OWN eyes and ears.
Jesus when He was hanging on the Cross, could still look at others and see them through the eyes of God "Father forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing" - Luke 23:34.
How can we not have fear - even when confronted with death? We take our eyes off ourselves and our circumstances and put them on Jesus. I'm not even going to say focus, because at first, our eyes may not be focused at all... but the longer we look at Jesus, the more our eyes come into focus.
I think I've said before, my life verse is Romans 14:7,8 "For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or we die, we belong to the Lord." I want to live into that - because THAT is where the Lord wants me to live.
No Fear in Love - Iona
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5OwLHGv4yA
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