“Perfect love drives out fear.” 1 John 4:18 NIV

God loves you unconditionally at all times – but you must receive His love. Only when you do that can you love God in return and extend His love to others. In other words, you can’t give away what you don’t have! “God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5 AMPC). That means when you commit your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart, and He brings God’s love with Him. The question is, what are you doing with that love? Are you rejecting it because you think you’re not good enough? Has it ever occurred to you that you have a relationship with yourself, and until you learn to love yourself you will never be able to love God or anybody else? John said, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18 NIV). One author wrote, “I tried for years to walk in ‘perfect love’ and failed daily. I thought perfect love referred to my loving others perfectly. Then God showed me that the only ‘perfect love’ was His love for me – He’s the only one that can love perfectly! Once that became clear, I started confessing: I don’t love everything I do, but I love myself as I am because God loves me that way. I know I need to change, and I want to change. In fact, I believe God is changing me daily. But meanwhile, I will not reject what God accepts. I’ll accept myself as I am right now, knowing I won’t always remain this way.” God loves you – believe it and receive it!

The Word for You Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from Celebration Enterprises, Inc. Copyright © 2024