The pictures have nothing to do with the blog. The butterflies were taken today right outside our den area. The bird was outside my office window. Hope you enjoy. On to the blog.
I John 4:18 says "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." As I was thinking about this I tried to think of some of the reasons people fear when they love. Several are obvious. We may fear we will be rejected. We may fear that we will be hurt. We may fear we will be taken advantage of. We may fear being made fun of or that our love is insufficient. We even might fear that the person really will respond and then we will have to enter into relationship.
Whatever the reason we fear when we love, there is one similarity in all of them. They all have I/we in them. What I am saying is that we fear because we are looking at what happens to us, rather than looking at how our love can impact the other person. But if we take our eyes off ourselves and look at Jesus then it does not matter how the person responds to us. We have nothing to fear. Isn't this what agape love really is? It is a love that places value on the other person not because of anything he has done but simply because we choose to do that. It seeks the highest good of the other and not just the immediate good. And this kind of love does not seek anything in return. It often receives rejection and rebuke in it's place. But agape love has no fear.
So I challenge each of us this week to reach out in love to those you have been fearful of in the past. Take your eyes off of yourself and look at the needs of this hurting world.
