Week 5 No Fear in Love

“Fear involves the expectation of divine punishment”
If I am reading 1 Jn 4 correctly, I don’t need to know how to love. I need to know the One who is Love, my heavenly Father. Not just know Him, but dwell in Him, let Him dwell in me. I need to stare into the mirror of Love and not forget what manner of woman I am, because He says, “as He is, so am I in the world.” Therefore, I, too, am Love.

The more I connect with God, my Father, through the promised a Holy Spirit, the more Love is perfected in me. The dread of punishment, disappointment or disengagement moves out of this dwelling. In reality, there is just no more room for fear because my house is crowded with the fullness of my Father who is love.

Love sends fear packing.

1 JOHN 4:16b-18 AMP
…God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, AND God abides continually in him. In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love [dread does not exist]. But perfect (complete, full-grown) love drives out fear, because fear involves [the expectation of divine] punishment, so the one who is afraid [of God’s judgment] is not perfected in love [has not grown into a sufficient understanding of God’s love]. 

*** so this is one of my major mess ups. I created this on back of a page that had heart stickers on it. Some of the ink from that side bled through, so I decided to use acrylic on the edge to cover up the ink. But the acrylic started to leave heart impressions, which was OK I guess, but I decided to use a heat tool to dry the acrylic. I didn’t think about the fact that my heart stickers on the other side were made of acrylic. So the heat tool started to curl up those hearts and create a wrinkled page. I was so upset, now I’d ruined both sides. How could I possibly post this ugly picture. But I asked the Lord to show me something through it. Love covers a multitude of mistakes, and shame is fear. The kind Love just sent packing. And this is what I ended up with, Sticker letters suitcases it cut out and glued on and sprinkles of snow. And no shame or fear.

//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=pjlan-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B011Q0DUCW&asins=B011Q0DUCW&linkId=de0f08c340614b4cfeb35aa33771e03c&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true