Choose Wisely...

I have a final end of the week thought concerning the antagonism between Love and Fear.  Actually… it is no contest at all!  Love always puts you in the winner’s circle.  I John 4:16 says that “We have known and believed that God loves us.  God is love.  Those who live in God’s love live in God, and God lives in them.”  (Gods Word ©)

This verse alone is the key to living a life that consistently puts fear on the run away from you.  The two words “known” and “believed” say it all.  We have to know the love that God has for us and then believe that because of His love for us, that He will always be there when we need Him, so we can walk in peace and victory during every season of our lives.

The word translated “known” means for us to have an increasingly more intimate knowledge of His love.  Intimate with the same closeness, desire and passion as married couples experience in the privacy of their bedrooms.  (look at Strong’s and Thayer’s Greek Definitions to grasp the depth of the intent of this thought)  The more we are consumed with the knowledge of His love, the less the treat of fear will impact our lives.

The Apostle Paul was a man that walked in this growing revelation of the Master’s love for him.  How else do you think that he could have faced the persecution, the beatings, the harrowing ship wrecks and the daily rejection from the Jewish people he loved?  The Apostle John is known as the Apostle of Love.  He was tortured with burning hot oil, was left to die on a deserted rock in the middle of the sea and still kept on going, teaching the love of God for us by precept and personal example, and was the only one of the original twelve to die a natural death.

How you and I fare in this world is directly connected to our increasingly more intimate, personal knowledge of the Father’s love for us!  Is the time, effort and personal sacrifice worth the rewards of this lifestyle?  That’s a question that each of us has to answer on our own.  I know that I have recently been tested to extremes that I never thought I could endure.  His love is the ONLY power that has enabled me to push on through and continue to reach forth for the joy ahead of me as promised to me in His infallible word.  (see Hebrews 12:2)

I’ll leave you on this beautiful warm Friday afternoon (here in northern California…) with a question posed by the Patriarch Joshua, as he encouraged the leaders of Israel just prior to his home going.  In a move to get them to clearly understand the importance of their part in the success or failure of their future he said “choose today whom you will serve.”  (Joshua 24:15 Gods Word ©)

Like I challenged you yesterday, I’ll ask again today… How about you?  Will you to live a mundane life fighting off fear that lurks around every corner, or make the commitment to seek out, and continually grow in the personal revelation knowledge of the Father’s love that He has just for you?  This is a love  which “goes far beyond any (natural) knowledge”  (Gods Word ©). Choose wisely, for the length and happiness of your days may depend on it!  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What (Good Things) am I expecting today?”