Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
Mar 8th, 2010 by admin
Dear friends,
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18.
“… and (Jesus) said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
… And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. ” John 8:7-12.
Can love contain strife? Perfect love, by definition, cannot contain strife or it would not be perfect. Yet we experience both love and strife in our lives. How do we realize the perfect love to which Jesus bore witness?
Jesus demonstrated perfect love when he waited after making the statement to those who desired to stone the woman caught in adultery. At that time he did nothing to any of them except extend God’s love through his mind to all of them. These men wanted to kill her because of their own temptations and resulting feelings of guilt. Each of them in turn realized that strife (stoning the woman) would not remove the sin from their own minds. Each dropped his stone and gave up his misdirected attempt to correct his own mind by murdering another.
Jesus’ message to us is “perfect love casts out fear.” Fear is at the root of anger and strife. If we did not feel threatened in some way, we would have no desire for strife.
Healing prayer is most effective when strife is absent from our minds, at least temporarily. How do we set aside unpleasant thoughts in our minds? Merely by allowing Christ to enter our minds and remove all thoughts that are incompatible with perfect love. Christ is eagerly waiting for us to open our minds to perfect love. Once we do that we are able to extend that love to those on the healing prayer list that have requested our help.
When our minds are open to perfect love, we become with Christ Jesus “the light of the world” to those in need of healing. We then cast fear out of our own minds rather than cast stones at others.
Thank you for your willingness to serve as a channel for perfect love through healing prayer.
Peace,
John