Father, thank you for your perfect love that can drive out my fears!
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”1 John 4:18
Over the 20 or so years that my husband and I have owned our house, we have had quite a variety of tenants who have lived in our basement suite. While we have often tried to help people who were in difficult circumstances, we have learned by experience that it does not always work out for them to stay with us long term. We value a quiet lifestyle at this stage in our lives, so too much noise is a big factor for us, even though it is normal for families to harbor a certain amount of yelling, crying and banging. We realized recently that we are also stressed by tenants who stay up late at night, coming in and out of the house while we are trying to sleep.
Home should be a haven for all who live there. In the same way that two very different people often cannot be roommates, fear and love cannot live in the same house. I know, because they have both lived in me! And while I have tried to evict fear many times in the past, I know how difficult it can be to make fear move out! It sneaks back into my life at the most unexpected times, and if I am not careful, it soon takes over my life again!
As I have puzzled over how to make fear go away for good, I have come to realize that I have to choose God’s perfect love as my only tenant on a daily basis. If my life is full of God’s perfect love for me, that love actually is what evicts (or drives out) fear, because there is no room for it!
Who wouldn’t want to trade fear for love? Allow God’s love to fill you, and refuse to let fear back in each time it knocks at your door, because if you have asked Christ to live in you, your house is already leased for a lifetime!
Father, thank you for your perfect love that can drive out my fears! Please be the ideal tenant in my life and continually evict any scary feelings I may have of being punished or stalked by evil.
By Karen Woodard
Used by Permission
Further Reading
• Another Prayer for Protection
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