The following is taken from 10 Steps to Knowing God by Liz Linssen. Available on Amazon.
Love without fear Day 2
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). As we continue to think about this subject of Gods love, permit me to ask you a question: If God loves you in the way the Bible describes, then what does that mean for your life? What difference should that make? Ive met so many people who are terrified of trusting God. They think that if they surrender an important area of their life to God, He will ask them to do or give up something that they just dont want to do. They have this subconscious dread that God will never allow them to enjoy life or that He will send them off to live as missionaries in some far flung and unheard of corner of the world with no money or contact with loved ones for the rest of their lives! Why is it that so many of us have such low expectations of God? I believe one reason is because we do not comprehend Gods love or goodness. The result is, we live in fear as opposed to living securely in Gods love. Instead of knowing and believing God to be a good God who loves us deeply and whom we can trust completely, we think of Him as cruel or selfish! We dont realize that everything God does is for our own good and so we fear obeying Him because we are just not sure where He will lead us. We are afraid Hell ask us to do something we dont want to do, or Hell ask us to make sacrifices we dont want to make. But this kind of perspective of God creates anxiety in us and causes us to hold back from God. We are afraid that if we do, we will regret it later on. According to 1 John 4:18, there is no fear in love. In other words, living in love banishes fear for fear and love cannot reside togetherthey are polar opposites. Where Gods love is absent, you will find fear in its place. What this means is, if you come to comprehend and believe that God loves you, it will actually banish your fears because, as the Bible says, there is no fear in love. Pause for a few moments and think about what that means. By way of example, if you are in a loving relationship with someone, then your love for one another should banish any fears you may have: fear of infidelity or abandonment, etc., because that is what love doesit banishes fear, and you become secure in your mutual love. In just the same way, precisely because God loves you, you can be totally secure in Him and not afraid about following Gods plans for your life. Fear is not of God, and He doesnt want you to live by it. Instead, He wants you to live confidently in His love and care for you, secure in the goodness and faithfulness of His character. As Psalm 9 confirms: The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you (vv.910). Those who know God know that they can trust Him to help them in difficult times. Those who have confidence in His character know that God will never forsake them. This is the kind of confidence God longs for you to have in Him.
The following is taken from 10 Steps to Knowing God by Liz Linssen. Available on Amazon.
Theres a period in the Old Testament in which this theme of confidence in Gods love can be seen throughout. As weve looked at before, the Israelites had been oppressed in slavery under Egyptian rule for quite some time and were turning to God in prayer, crying out for His deliverance. In response to their plight, God chose a man called Moses to head up the deliverance project and used him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt with the ultimate goal of bringing them into a land of their own (known as the Promised Land). After successfully coming out of Egypt with powerful displays of miracles from Gods hand1, Moses and all the Israelites (Exodus 12:37 states there were 600,000 men on foot, plus women and children) arrived at a desert and were suddenly faced with huge practical needs (food and water, etc.) for all these people. Yet despite the huge number of people, God miraculously provided for all these people time after time, bringing water out of a rock, bread out of the skies and much more. However, in spite of the fact that they had seen God move in amazing displays of power to help and rescue them out of slavery in Egypt, their faith and trust in God wavered whenever they were faced with a new need while in the desert. So often they succumbed to the fear that God would fail to provide for them and often imagined themselves dying a horrible death right there in the desert! Time after time, miracle after miracle, God encouraged them to just put their trust in Him and believe His Word, but many of them failed to do so. Instead of believing and trusting God for their needs, letting their faith overcome their fears, they complained to Moses, refusing to believe that God truly loved them and therefore would take care of them. 1. Please read from Exodus 16:2 to Exodus 17:7. In these passages, how did the Israelites respond each time they were faced with a need? Why do you think that was?
2. How did God provide for the needs of this vast nation of people?
At times we too can be just like them. When faced with a challenging situation that we just cant imagine how God can resolve, or if something doesnt go quite as we expected, we grumble against God and accuse Him of not caring. We become afraid and struggle to believe that God really does care enough to provide for our daily needs. My friend, that is not how God wants you to live. Instead, God wants you to live securely in His love, and not in your fears. Read another story of my friend Susie who allowed Gods love to overcome her fears: I didnt realize it at first, but after moving to Israel, I started to develop anxiety in relation to searching for an apartment. Being a single woman, I was on limited funds. Anytime I searched the newspapers, I would get so anxiety-stricken, I would have to put it down. Then one day my toaster broke. I know its just a small thing, but I really love toast and the Lord knew that, but due to limited funds, I decided I would hold off buying a toaster for a while. So I resorted to holding bread over the open fire on the gas range for some time.
The following is taken from 10 Steps to Knowing God by Liz Linssen. Available on Amazon.
One day I was visiting a friend. It was a beautiful day and so her front door was open to the garden and the street, and I saw that there was a big junk pile in front of her house and a man was there going through it all. I wasnt paying any attention to it, but it really bothered her. Shortly after, another friend came over by car to deliver a package and I went outside to help her carry it. On the way back to my friends house, I suddenly saw a plastic bag literally right in my way. I had to bend down to move it out of my way, but when I picked it up I realized there was a toaster inside the plastic bag! No one else had seen it. I took it out and it looked like new, and immediately, I knew this was a gift from God. My friends started saying, Oh it probably doesnt work etc., but they didnt know anything about my broken toaster. I said to them, Oh it works. I know it works. But just to please you, I will plug it in. And guess what? It worked! God my Father clearly just gave me that toaster simply because He loves me, and it opened up more faith for me that I was lacking in my need of searching for a new apartment. It was a revelation to me that God just gave me a gift because Im His child and He wanted to bless me. God knew that Susie was struggling to believe He could provide a place to live, and so He gave her this toaster as a token of His love, which enabled her to believe and trust God, overcoming her fears, for her greater need. What a wonderful and understanding God we serve. Lets never forget that our God who made this universe is well able to supply what we need! And because He is God, it surely figures that He is going to work differently to what we expect and when, but that doesnt at all mean He has abandoned us or forgotten us as the Israelites mistakenly assumed. Listen to what Moses later said to His people in Deuteronomy 10:1213, which explains why God wanted His people to follow Him: And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lords commands and the decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? 3. According to these two verses, why does God want us to obey and revere Him?
It was for their own good that God called them to follow and obey Him and that is the same reason God invites us to follow Him. Let us resolve to not be like those among the Israelites who allowed their fear to overcome themfears of dying, hunger or thirst in the desert, fears of being defeated by their enemies, of being led astray by their leaders, or of dying from disease or plagues. Instead, lets choose to believe Gods love for us and in His promises to provide for us. Dont give in to the threatening fear of financial insecurity, loneliness, singleness, ill health or unemployment. And remember Gods past faithfulness to you, which will encourage and refresh your faith. Whenever you face a challenging or overwhelming situation, believe the promises of God and dont think God is going to abandon you. Gods perfect love for you will banish your fear and anxiety. Decide today to put your anchor down deep into Gods love for you.
The following is taken from 10 Steps to Knowing God by Liz Linssen. Available on Amazon.
