I John 4: 18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

This may be my favorite verse of all the fear nots!  What a reminder to this Chicken little heart of mine.  Love eliminates fear!  Fear is from hell.  If I fear, I have not quite got all the LORD has for me down in the core of my being.  This year I learned this quote by the Asaro tribe:  “Knowledge is only a rumor until it lives in the bones.”

This Scripture is the LORD of LOVE saying to us, “I Love YOU and all this you have read and studied is of no value unless you give me your fear and trust me to carry you through whatever lies before you! I will NEVER leave you or forsake you!”  (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5, John 14:18-28)

When I was barely twenty years old, a new bride, and a girl with an agenda (plan of how my life was going to go………) the officer and gentleman called to say he had a new job and it was in the state of Maryland!!!!  To say I was not thrilled is an understatement.  This was nowhere on my well thought out life map.  I had never been out of the state of Alabama except to the panhandle of Florida and I was registered to begin classes at the University of Alabama.  I had six short weeks to “like” the idea of this move to a major metropolitan area (smack in the middle of the Baltimore-Washington corridor) where I knew NOT A SOUL save my officer and gentleman. So, after I bid my mom and siblings a tearful goodbye, our drive to our new “home” state was a quiet one!  Just tellin’ the truth.  Not proud of it.  I faced some big challenges:  I found myself in less than desirable housing while we searched for a home.  I had never driven in such traffic and was unsure I would ever be able to drive 90 mph (speed limit then was 85mph with six to eight lanes of traffic and exits on both sides of the road).  Finding a new church family proved to be daunting.  I needed to look for a job because now I had to establish residency before I could resume classes due to the out of state tuition expense, and the cherry on top of this blizzard of emotions was I discovered I was pregnant and had no doctor and no one to ask who to use!  Enter what had all the potential to be a meltdown of global proportions.

The reality, it never happened.  I felt safe and secure and fear never crept in.  The reason?  I was surrounded by a love that I believed would take care of me, the baby I now carried, and this was ENOUGH!

His love for me cast out all my fear of all the unknowns.  There was no doubt in my heart.

I look back on that time and amaze myself.  A period of my life that had all the potential of disaster did not materialize because I had faith and trust in the officer and gentleman and his love for us.  I found a wonderful physician and our new pediatrician was an Alabama guy!  My next door neighbor remains one of my dearest friends–we have shared joy and sorrow for more than…………well, a long time!  She became an “aunt” to my children.  And, Indy 500 drivers have nothing on me!  I can come off an on ramp doing 80, merge across six lanes of traffic and exit off to the left less than a mile down the road and not even sweat! Yep, nailed it!

“F-E-A-R          Forget everything and run

Or

Face Everything and RISE!”  Zig Zigler

This is the love Christ has for His Bride!  His love for her surrounds her and keeps her safe and ever under His watchful care.  She has His name which is powerful and full of authority and sends the forces of evil packing.  She has but to say His name and He is present.  Nothing can touch His Bride that will not be for her ultimate good.  He carries her through the shadows, the valleys, and up the steep mountains.  His perfect LOVE for His Bride shields her from any torment as long as she stays close to His side.

If I had been a runaway bride because I was afraid, I would never have known how much my officer and gentleman really loved me.  I would not have become confident in our relationship.  I would have missed this truth!!!

Are you afraid of the future because you do not have all the details?  Trust the LOVE of the LORD.  He has already proven how much He loves you……………He died for you! (John 3:16)  Let His love cast your fear as high as the heavens above the earth.  (Psalm 103:11)  The best living testimony of how much God loves us is our peace in the storms of life.

Treading together with HIM,

Yvonne