Fear < Love B/C of the C-R-O-S-S

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
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.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

1 John 4:7-21

Ever been afraid? Ever had that consuming, anxious worry lodge in your throat? Once in awhile that hits me smack in the windpipe and I am "down for the count." I hate these moments for many reasons: a) I know that it isn't as bad as I feel it is, b) Emotions aren't truth, c) they tend to momentarily paralyze me, d) perfect LOVE casts out all fear - and the Spirit of the LIVING God is within me -- so WHY do I replay the voicemails of worry/fear/panic through and through my mind?

I have a choice to make each time this happens: RELY and LEAN INTO the power of the Living God. That is my responsibility. And as a pastor said today (quoting Mark Driscoll), "God would rather die than live without you [me]" - that is LOVE. And God's LOVE is consuming, freeing, alive, real, eternal, and perfect.

Ever been afraid - how do you process through your fears?