Forty Days Without FearSample

LOVE CONQUERS FEAR 

When I was 10 years old, I went on a safari with my family. After the release of Disney’s ‘Lion King’, my youngest brother was fixated on lions. As we drove past all the animals, all he could talk about was lions - he was captivated by them, their teeth, their claws and the fact that they had taken human lives. 

As we drove though the lion area, I decided to make the trip a bit more exciting. I wound my brother’s window down about four centimetres. There was no way a lion was getting in there, but I knew it would be enough to scare the life out of him! 

He let out the loudest scream and leaped into the front of the car, into the arms of my dad, the strongest and biggest human in the car! 

This to me is the perfect picture of faith. When we are fearful, we always have the arms of a heavenly Father to jump into – and this is faith! The question we have to ask is: When we are faced with fear, do we seek the love of our Father or seek the solution in ourselves? 

Faith is trusting God and His goodness when things are going well, and when things are difficult. Faith is realizing that it is better to be in the eye of the storm with Jesus than on the shore without Him. 

Jesus has shown us His great love in taking all judgement against us, and all punishment for it, upon Himself – we never have to fear punishment again and instead, we can find rest in His love. Human love can come and go; it can be conditional and based on performance and feelings. People can fall in and out of love, but it is impossible for God to be unloving towards us – His love is perfect!  

Action: Let’s take a moment to write down or think about what perfect love looks like to us, as revealed in the person of Jesus. When we have made a list let’s each take a moment to think, ‘That’s how God loves me!’