Fearless Love

I have always been a chronic worrier. When I was younger, I had to write down the things that I needed to do the next day on a pad of paper beside my bed because I would get so worried that I would forget them that I couldn’t fall asleep! As I’ve gotten older, my worries have continued (and an extremely organized google calendar has replaced my notepad). School, relationships, and sins I’m struggling with often fill my thoughts, making me worried and fearful. Even though I know that God promises to take care of me (Matt. 6:25-34), I still have an extremely difficult time getting these worries out of my head! While taking a break from studying for my exams this week, I came across a new verse that changed how I’ve been thinking about worry:

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4: 16 - 18

I had never thought about my worries as being directly related to love. This verse specifies that God is radical, perfect, fearless love – his love is all-encompassing, sustaining, and never fails. To live in love as we are called to do as Christians, we must live in God’s radical fearless love.

We are called to abandon our fears, worries, and concerns before God in order to live in and be a witness to God’s radical love for us.

When I focus on God’s radical love for me, it makes it so much easier to obey him and lay down my worries at his feet! I wanted to leave you all with a song about laying down your worries before God that’s been stuck in my head lately (Lay ‘Em Down, Needtobreathe):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1QMmWlOmEQ