Love. Perfect.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 4-7, 8a).

"God is love" (1 John 4:8).

"But now faith, hope, love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Love is eternal. God is love.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11, italics mine).

He has come into our hearts by His grace through faith in Christ. We are washed in the waters of baptism to die to self and be raised to new life in Christ. We live the restored life of a heart transplant recipient...we trade ours for His, disease for vitality, stone for flesh.

Love is life-giving. God is love.

I recently reread 1 John 4:18, "...perfect love drives out fear..." and it dawned on me in a new way. I realized I shouldn't fear betrayal, loss, rejection, isolation, or any kind of calamity. These kinds of fear feed on a desire for self-preservation. The more we focus on what they might take away, the more self-absorbed and fearful we become. Incased in this type of fear we can't possibly have the love, and thereby grace or strength, required to overcome. But, there is a singular fear that, if embraced, will lead us to God. 

Psalm 111:10a tells us, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." We're not talking about fearing a tempestuous god with an itchy trigger finger on the "smite button". We're talking about a fear born of the realization that we have all fallen short of His glory and have sinned against Him. We are the guilty defendants. He is the righteous Judge reviewing the air-tight case against us. Fearing His justice and flinging ourselves on His mercy—that sounds like wisdom. With wisdom comes understanding, with understanding comes gratitude, and with gratitude comes love. Real, vibrant, trusting, tested love. 

Love is the strength to overcome. God is love.

As I contemplate all of this, I realize that God is with me and should everything I fear come to pass, even then, God remains. 

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35-39).

I gave an accounting of the things I fear and in the final equation, the only thing I truly fear is separation from God. That's the only thing I could not endure in this life or the next—existing apart from Him.

And with that final thought, fearful tears turn to tears of joy. "The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1).

God is love. Love wins!

Covered in Christ, we do not have to fear the worst. Instead, we can trust God to bring about His best.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28 KJV).

God is love. Perfect love.

All unmarked scripture references taken from the New International Version
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