Monday, December 15, 2014

Pray for God's Perfect Love to Be Manifested (PrayerLife)

Lake Michigan (Holland, MI)
I am in a calm so great
that I fear nothing.
What could I fear?
I am with Him.
- Brother Lawrence

One of my favorite relationship verses in Scripture is 1 John 4:18:

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.

The logic goes like this: 

The more fear, the less love;
The less fear, the more love.

Psalm 23 is about this. We read:

I will fear no evil,
for you are with me.

The quote from Brother Lawrence reasons this way:

1. God is perfect love.
2. Where God's love is, there is no fear.
3. God is with me, and I am with God.
4. Therefore "I am in a calm so great that I fear nothing."

This is not theory, but experience. All who have embraced Christ are "in Christ," and experience the presence of Christ and the reality of Christ's resources. One way I access this is to pray, "God, let these truths become my experience, now." Let these truths descend from my mind into my heart."

Pray for God's perfect love that indwells you to be manifested in you.

(This coming Sunday at Redeemer [12/21/14] I am preaching on: There is no fear [phobos] in love [agape].)