Rev. Ray and Pat Amos
1 John 4:18
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, December 28, 2019
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”
The Amplified Bible says that full grown love turns fear out of doors, and then dread no longer exist. It expels every trace of terror. Have you ever been afraid of something, or a situation, and then someone that you love and trust shows up who dispels your fear by simply being there?
Love needs to be loved if it is going to make a difference in our lives. The next verse says that we love Him because He first loved us. It is easy to say that God is Love, and then expect Him to make things better because after, “God is Love.” We cannot take our Lord for granted that way. One-sided love is unfulfilled because it longs to be accepted.
I have known marriages where one spouse expects the other to love him/her, but the same spouse does not think that he/she should give love in return. That will at best be an unfulfilled marriage. Christianity suffers from too much one-sided love. We force our Savior to weep and say again, “How often I would have gathered you about me, but you would not.”
It is three days after Christmas; do we like what God has given us; or do we put him aside so that we can play with other things? We are living in fearful times and we need the peace of God’s love. The Bible asks, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”
Let’s dust off an old hymn this morning, and go back to an old-time church pew and sing what we should not have stopped singing:
“I need Jesus, my need I now confess; No friend like Him in times of deep distress; I need Jesus, the need I gladly own; Though some may bear their load alone, Yet I need Jesus…Every day along my way, Yes, I need Jesus.”
Grace and Peace, Rev Ray
Link to Youtube – We Need Jesus More Than Ever
