God Is Love
As you know we as a family at TWP are building our foundation on the truth of the fullness of Abba’s love. Our hearts will camp right here until we grow in our understanding of this magnificent love He has for us. Our first foundational scripture is 1 John 1:5. We discussed this yesterday.
Our 2nd foundational scripture is 1 John 4:16-18, “We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. By living in God, love has been brought to its full expression in us so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment, because all that Jesus now is, so are we in this world. Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection.”
Our first question when we read this: Have I had an intimate experience with Abba? We can read these types of questions and immediately begin to think about being in church or some sort of meeting, but the truth of the matter is His love wants to be experienced in every moment of your life. He wants you to have this very personal, intimate experience when you are walking in the grocery store, talking to your neighbor, combing your child’s hair, helping an elderly parent or grandparent. This is not meant to be experienced only when you're in church, praying or reading the Bible. THOSE who are living in love are living in Jesus and Jesus lives through them. All that Jesus is, so are we right now in this world. Ponder that statement for a moment.
Second question: Do you truly trust His love? We often say we believe Abba loves us. But when problems come, we doubt and ask why it’s happening if He loves us. We need to know deep inside that He can be trusted.
By trusting in His love and experiencing Him in every moment we are living in Him. When we live in God we have no fear of the future. This passage states we can face the day of judgement without fear. Most of us were taught the day of judgement is when we die and stand before Jesus, but we face judgement every day by someone or some circumstance. When these times of judgement arise and our hearts respond through fear, anxiety or worry we know that His love has not has its full work in us. His love never brings fear so if you experience fear, anxiety or worry this is His invitation to you to come closer and let His love wash over you. As His love is experienced you will begin to fully trust Him with your future, your family, your community, your state, your nation and all the world. He’s got the whole world in His loving hands. Knowing this confidently in your heart starts with you intimately experiencing Him daily in every moment.
How do I do that, you ask? Constantly turn your heart and thoughts to Him. Ask Him questions about every moment. Keep your heart connected to His and you will begin to hear Him speaking to you. You will feel His delight in you. I recently had this experience with His delight. I was driving down the road. I wasn’t listening to anything or talking to Him but all of a sudden, I had this joy begin to rise in my heart and I could feel a freshness around me like standing in an open field of flowers and I thought what is happening. I heard the Lord say, “It’s My delight.”
GOD IS LOVE. He wants you to KNOW His love intimately.
