"God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love."
1 John 4:17-18, The Message
This is both incredibly convicting and incredibly comforting to me.
I'm afraid of facing some things from my past, because I will have to re-live the pain. But why am I afraid of the pain? Perfect love casts out fear.
That doesn't make the pain any less vivid, but it does make it easier to give away. It makes it easier to know that my identity isn't bound to the pain. I don't have to own it and control it. It's not mine. It's just a culmination of things that have loaded up in my life, not something that I was born with and made to be.
I have someone in my life who is brave enough to punch through the walls the pain has created, so that he can help me to toss away the poisonous things from my past. He is truly my earthly "grace with clothes on." And he has helped me to remember and really believe that I have always had Someone who IS Grace with Clothes On.
I plan on singing love - instead of feeling fear - from now on. Eternity begins today, right?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
you are neat!
Post a Comment