{Be Encouraged} Love is Not a Small Thing

What if I fall down? What if I fail? What if I get hurt? What if I’m not good enough?

FEAR. That is what is behind all of these questions. Oh, these questions that I am all to familiar with because I ask myself them almost on a daily basis. Usually I ask myself these questions in regards to love or being loved…and that is when they are the scariest of all. Because in my broken, imperfect understanding and showing of love there are falls, failure, hurt and times of unworthiness.

Love is not a small thing, a thing that can be learned or grasped in a moment or understood as soon as it is defined. Love is messy, dangerous and it demands more of you than you think you have. Love is also beautiful, life changing and of the upmost importance.

1 John has a lot to say about love, in 1 John 4:7 it says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God.” When I let my fear of failure or unworthiness dictate the extent of my love, I am once again showing how far I still have to go in being perfected in love and in my understanding of what real love from God is all about. 1 John 7:18-19 says this, ” There is no fear in love because 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.”

Do you see that? We love because God first loved us…we did not come up with this love thing and it is only through His perfect love that we can be perfected in our loving of Him and one another. We will never learn to perfectly love God or one another, there will always be new aspects of love to discover and grow in, but in Him we can have peace and rest without fear. Because Gods love is perfect and in His perfect love there is no fear.

So when those questions creep once more into my mind, questions of falling, failure and unworthiness, they are now met with the truth that I am loved by the one who created me and in HIS love there is no fear. We are called emulate that love to those around us – no matter the risk or fear involved.

May God be showing you what it looks like to love and be loved without fear, and may you be boldly loving those around you as you grow in Christ. – Kristina