March 23
A Basement Full of Fears 1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.
I don't remember when my brother told me about "the creature," but I can recall as a little tyke standing at the top of the stairs looking down into the deep darkness of our basement. It was a dark, damp and dingy kind of place. Of course, I didn't know it but my brother pulled a trick on me when he told me about the most grisly, meanest bogeyman you've ever seen. On occasion, my mom would send me downstairs to get some canned green beans or some potatoes she stored in our basement. You've never seen a kid run so fast. I'd set a world record going down and up those stairs. Although I never saw that bogeyman, I heard him frequently. And it scared the daylights out of me. In fact, to this day, when I stand at the top of those same stairs, I still feel a leftover trace of that same fear.
Are there any bogeymen in your life? You may couch it in terms like "I'm concerned about this," or "I've been thinking about this a lot." But anyway you slice it, most of us are fearful. We're fearful about the future, about where our lives our going. We're even fearful of God's will.
Hate is not the opposite of love, fear is. As 1 John 4:18 says, "perfect love casts out fear." To be secure in God's love and protection of us, we must have faith. And we can't manufacture spiritual fruit ourselves. Sheer effort alone does not make good fruit grow. Zechariah 4:6 says, "'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." As God's Spirit works in us and through us to develop this fruit, He will take away our fear and fill us with His love.
Prayer: Ask God to begin removing fears in your life by filling you with His love and with His Spirit.
Discuss: What are your top three fears in life right now? Share them with one another and talk about why you are afraid in each of these areas. When you pray, pray for your spouse to be delivered from all his or her fears.
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