I grew up with a Christian legacy, but I did not fully grapple with the personal implications of Christianity until eight years ago, when the immense and eternal God declared himself to me saying, "Perfect love casts out fear." Three weeks later, after what I call my screaming day, was Easter Sunday. My 20th Easter Sunday, I worshipped God for the first time, not for who I thought he was supposed to be, but according to who I knew him to be: that is, the mighty and immeasurable Creator of all things who is yet the lover of my soul, who loves me perfectly, who casts out fear.
Every day of the last eight years, I have been, slowly and painstakingly, learning to fear less and love more. So many days, I find myself clamouring the way the weaker disciples did, "This is a hard teaching, who can accept it?" Thank God for Grace.
1 John 4:15-19, " Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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 for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us."
