1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.”
If God is love and love cast out fear, then if we have more of God, we’ll have less fear.
But how many times do we bury something in our life? How many times do we bury our fears. Because they’re too overwhelming, too difficult to face, or too hard to share.
Why do we keep them hidden? Just like in the story of Job, God allows us to face trials and difficult things so we can grow in relationship with Him.
If I’ve learned anything in the past year, it’s that God doesn’t just give us strength, He IS our strength. He walks with us through our difficult times, and if we’re being honest, some of the time we can’t even walk on our own so He carries. The times when we get so overwhelmed with our fears. When anxiety takes over and tells us that there’s no way we could move on from this. When the devil tries to take a hold of us and strip us of any hope we had left.
But here’s the good news: the devil and our anxiety and fears have no power of us anymore. Because Jesus gave His life to take all of that away from us. All of the hurt and pain can be handed over to Him. We just have to give it up.
Easier said than done, right? Of course it’s not going to be easy. You’re going to be put in vulnerable positions and your heart is going to be wide open. It’s a terrifying place to be but it’ll all be worth it because that hole in your heart will be filled with God’s love. A tender love that surpasses anything our human brains could understand and surrounds us in the times when we need it most. When we’re so broken and beat down that we have no strength to get back up. That’s when we surrender it all to Him and thank Him for the endless mercy He shows us. That’s when we run to the Father with our hearts wide open and He receives us with His arms wide open because He is a good good Father who is always there for His children.
