where waves grow sweet

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 1 John 4:18

During a random flurry of Joyce Meyer sermons I was listening to at work a week or two ago, she said something that stuck in me like the knives Cole expertly throws into the tree out back. It was that sometimes fear will be present and you’ve just gotta “do things scared.” As usual, I don’t remember the rest of the message but this piece felt so relevant and really got me thinking.

Perfect love casts out fear and if we really understood the heart of God, fear just couldn’t stick around. We would laugh at it like a nonsensical fact told by a child. Or disdain it like a blatant lie told by a politician. But as our understanding is still imperfect, fear has a little more sway and we have a couple choices. We can either bow to it, letting it dominate our thoughts and dictate our actions. Or we can ignore its taunting threats and move forward with the things in our hearts, trusting that God is bigger than what we feel or any failure or hurt we may experience.

Last night, I saw The King’s Speech, which was one of the best movies I’ve seen in years – beautifully written, filmed, and acted. But it particularly hit home for me because it was a story of a man overwhelmed by fear, wrestling through the paralysis evident for all to see, and “doing things scared” – word by word and sentence by sentence – through friendship and acceptance. Perfect love casts out fear.

So here we are. I don’t know what your fears are. I don’t even know what all my fears are. But I want to ask if we are bowing to this foul thing, paying it homage, doing things differently than we would in its absence.

A prayer…

Lord, would you expose the places in our hearts where we are not living fully in the warmth and power of your love, your acceptance, your kindness, your forgiveness. Please show us where we have missed the fullness of life that cost you yours. Help us to trust you with our hearts and our lives and with every fear that arises, that we can walk forward in the freedom we were created for.