I am sitting in my infusion chair receiving medication to treat my present condition while potentially causing an issue for my future condition.

It is a notion that I had to come to terms with when I made the choice to allow an immunosuppressant, biologic medication be infused into my blood stream every 8 weeks.

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I had to release the fear of the possibility of something adverse occuring in my future in order to best take care of me in today.

I needed to accept that I was making the choice for my present while leaving my future to the Lord.

In that acceptance, I became UNAFRAID.

I find it interesting that I am reminded of that process today as I continue on this quest of becoming UNAFRAID through writing…this 30 day writing challenge has quickly turned into over 90 days!!

On this day, I worry for those in my family who now carry Covid antibodies from having the virus…what will that mean for the future health of my precious loves??

On this day, I worry for the newest diagnosis of my dearest friend who continues to fight mightily against the cancer that rages inside her….what will this mean for her future? For her family? For me as her friend that loves her as much as I would if she were my sister?

I must accept what is for today and leave tomorrow to the Lord. He knows what tomorrow will hold. He loves them more than I do. He loves me too.

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That brings me to today’s verse which is found in 1 John 4:16-19.

“And so we know and rely on the love that God has for us.

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the of judgement: in this world we are like Jesus.

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 in perfect love. We love because He first loved us.”

That is worthy of reading for a second time.

Here it is from the Message translation~

“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God 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 Judgement Day- our standing with the world is identical to 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 or judgement- is one not fully formed in love. We though are going to love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

Well-formed love, perfect love drives out, banishes fear.

God is love.

God is well-formed and perfect to drive out AND banish fear.

God in us is what makes us UNAFRAID.

Think about that for a minute.

A little earlier in this chapter, 1 John 4:4, we read the One who is in you is greater than the one in the world.

The One in us is God, the one in the world is Satan- our enemy. Jesus told us in John 10:10 that we have an enemy who prowls around this earth seeking those to lie to, to kill,and to destroy.

This enemy in our world is who and what we have come to fear…it is his influence on our world that has brought illness,death, and evil through sin. This enemy is not in us. This enemy is in the world.

Go back up to the beginning verses of our passage…it clearly says God is in them.

Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

That’s why we do not have to be afraid…the One IN us is BIGGER than the fear as well as the one who causes the fear.

Let me say it this way…my son plays football. When he was 13 he would wear his protective gear and would play well against those who came him. He did well using the gear outside of him to protect him.

Now, he has grown stronger through being two years older, weight lifting regularly, and eating a strict protein-filled diet. He still wears his pads when he plays, but he is stronger inside those pads.

Greater is He inside…

What about the part of all this that says if we have fear we do not live in love?? Does that mean, since I struggle with fear and am afraid, that God is not in me??

NO!

I think it all comes down to living in love.

How do you feel, how does your life look, when you feel loved?

Do the days seem brighter? Food taste better? The impossible suddenly possible?

When we live like we are loved we live differently…more optimistically…with more hope.

We are not living afraid.

The context of this passage adds to the weight of our discussion because it brings an authenticity and a vulnerability we must know to best understand this encouragement that perfect love can cast out fear.

The author is none other than disciple John. John penned himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved when speaking of himself through the biblical book of John. He was one of the “inner three” that followed Jesus the most close with Peter and his own brother James. John is also the man whom Jesus designated to take care His mother while He was dying on the cross~ that honor speaks to the depth of their friendship.

John was with Jesus when Jesus was arrested, tried, executed, and died. John was with Peter on the day Jesus rose from the dead and saw the empty tomb with his own eyes.

John was waiting in the Upper Room when Jesus appeared to them for the first time after His resurrection.

John became a leader in the new Church that was forming and was arrested for preaching the Good News of Christ. While his brother and friends were martyred for their faith, John sat in isolation on an island called Patmos for his punishment. It was here that the risen Lord now seated at the right hand of God revealed Himself to John in a vision. John received a revelation from Christ that he wrote and is now the final book in our Bible.

John loved Jesus. More than that, John was loved by Jesus. John was able to teach, serve, and love others because he was loved by Christ first.

He loved because he was loved.

John knew fear first-hand…he was at the Garden of Gethsemane, after all. He knew the fear of persecution; he watched his brothers suffer and die for their testimony of faith.

Yet, John did not live as if afraid. In fact, he lived his life UNAFRAID.

How could that be?

Because he had seen the risen Lord that loved him.

He had watched his Savior ascend to the heavens to take His rightful place by God…and he was not afraid to continue to live his life as if Jesus was right beside him.

He did that because, as he writes to believers in his 1,2, and 3 letters of John, he knew God was in him and greater was He…

He knew that God is love…therefore, focusing on that could overcome anything.

What do we focus on when we are afraid? Do we reflect on the truth that we are loved? Are we living like we know we are loved?

Have you tried to claim the verse that declares IN PERFECT LOVE THERE IS NO FEAR?

Have you tried, when afraid, to firmly state GOD IS LOVE. GOD IS IN ME. LOVE IS IN ME. THERE IS NO ROOM FOR FEAR WHERE THERE IS PERFECT LOVE?

Have you tried to be thankful, to feel loved, when worry, anxiety, or fear are knocking at your door?

Being thankful dispels anxiety.

It really does. I cannot think about what I am worried about if I am thinking about how thankful I am for something else.

Reminding myself that I am loved, right here and now- just as I am, allows me to feel safe, secure, and UNAFRAID.

Don’t ever forget that you are loved as well and become UNAFRAID.