So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence… 1 John 4:16-17
The love we yearn for belongs to our Father. The reason we love at all is because He first loved us. If we believe we are made in His image, we have the capacity to love as He loves. In this love we will experience a supernatural freedom in the here and now. We all have tasted and seen, in part, a kind of love manifested through our beloved ones. It satisfies our soul, it enriches, and motivates our ability to trust. But in this season, let us be reminded to draw nearer to our greatest love of all. Jesus is the gift of love who does the unimaginable to capture our hearts. The source of His love has the power to fully deliver us from the hardship of fear or condemnation because God is love.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear is by suspicion, but he who fears is not grown up in love. 1 John 4:18
The gift of Christmas resonates in our hearts because God is the giver of life. The greatest gift humanity yearns to receive is a love that affirms identity, resolves, motivates, heals, and abides with us. God’s love is perfect because He fulfills His Word. Even if we are faithless, He remains faithful because He keeps true to His nature. From a place of eternal knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, God takes us by the hand and speaks into each of our hearts uniquely, just as He fashioned us.
Jesus is our peacemaker and our wonderful Counselor. He can arm us in His peace so that with confidence, we can boldly come to Him and receive everything we need for life. His words of love and truth toward us are like shooting arrows shattering the stony edges of our hearts and soothes like healing salve from the inside-out. His love dismantles the yoke of fear so we may grow into the fullness of Christ. In His love we find our breakthrough.
The Word of God affirms, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Let His Spirit renew your heart and mind that you may attest and approve that His ways will ultimately lead you deeper still into His love. May we hunger to grow in His love, be chiseled by it so we can fight the good fight in this life. Let us speak out the love found in our relationship with Jesus. The truth of His love for us has the power to release the fears and silence condemning words. Let us activate our faith and take Him at His Word so we may experience His rest for our hearts like never before. Breakthrough into a deeper faith-walk comes by way of genuine encounters with the love of Christ. May your heart be captured by an unfailing love; a love that sets you free. Open your heart with a renewed expectancy to receive the love of the Father today.
Prayer: Lord, you are an awesome Father! Advance my faith, continue to build my confidence in Your Word and Spirit. I desire to experience Your great love that dissolves the fears and fills me with everlasting strength to keep believing the best. You are my God each and every day. I open my heart and receive this day with the expectation that You will abide in me. I receive now a love-encounter with You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Additional verses: 1 Jn. 4:19; Gen. 1:27; 1 Jn. 4:8; John 4:10; 2 Ti. 2:13; 2 Cor. 5:5; Is. 9:6; Heb. 4:16; Ro. 8:1; Ro. 12:2; 1 Ti. 6:12; Jn. 8:36
