When I was growing up, Jim Stafford sang a hit song “I Don’t Like Spiders And Snakes”. That describes me perfectly because they scare me! In a medical journal, scientists believe that fear is innate and observable from as early as six months of age.(www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319937) What’s your greatest fear? For many its what happens when we die. That fear has been largely resolved in my life. Can I tell you how? God’s love! I received the great love of God expressed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I trust that His sacrificial death on the cross assuaged God’s wrath and paid the penalty for my sin (past, present and future). I will never have to stand before our Holy God and answer for my sin. Its been forgiven and forgotten. All my sins are at the bottom of the sea of forgetfulness. So, now I can live in that great love without fear. Yes, I am not fond of spiders and snakes, but I no longer fear coming to God. The best Christmas present you could receive this year is the gift of salvation and forgiveness. Why not open that first!?
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 1 John 4:18-21 NASB
How did God graciously reveal His love to me? Whom can I thank for sharing their faith? How can I help others discover His great love?
God, as this Christmas day begins- I thank You for Jesus, who came into the world, by Your great plan to save us. And He has. May we be immersed in that love and share it with all we meet. I wonder who You might draw into a personal relationship this Christmas season. Hear the prayers of fearful people and assuage them with Your great love.
