“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)

This scripture used to bother me because there are things that I do fear. I’m not talking about natural fear that warns me when danger is present, but things I should not be afraid of. The Lord has been teaching me that I am not the one who put His love in me, and I am not the one responsible for perfecting it. He is.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)

There is nothing I can do on my own to perfect this love or even cause it to happen. It is entirely God’s process of creating within me the attributes of Jesus. God tells us so clearly that humans can do nothing of themselves to become more like Jesus.

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3)

As long as I am willing to obey Him I don’t have to worry about what I can and cannot do. It’s not my problem anymore. It’s God’s. Since He created me, I think it’s time I realized that what He began in me, He is well able to finish. His Word says that we are to be perfect even as our Father is perfect, but it is God, in His own time, which will bring us to completion.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

© Cheryl Taul
February 1, 2008