“Perfect love casts out all fear.”

1 John 4:18

I remember the first time I read this verse. I was in high school, my friend’s Dad suddenly passed away from a heart attack. He was the same age as my Dad. There was no knowledge of a pre-existing condition, it was a shock to us all. To this day, I don’t know why it hit me so hard, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to my Dad. I cried so much for days, my parents were worried about me. I was fixating on this fear, this fear that my Dad was going to have a heart attack and die, IMMINENTLY. I opened my Bible one day and started reading in 1 John 4. That line stuck out to me immediately. “Perfect love casts out all fear.” It was almost instantaneous that I felt the peace of God fill me up. God’s PERFECT love LITERALLY cast out my fear. The original Greek translation of “drives” or “casts” has to do with a violent displacement. It means love grabs fear and tosses it out the window. In these uncertain times, just like my grade 10 existential crisis, we don’t know the future. It is easy to let fear get the best of us, BUT we need to allow the love of God to grab our fear and TOSS it out the window. We’re done with it. God does not call us to a Spirit of fear, rather to operate in love. If you are afraid today, that’s normal and that’s human. BUT we can’t live there, allow GOD to come in and CAST out all your fear. Fixate on the love of God rather than the fears that overwhelm you.

By Jessica Nelder // Next Generation Admin Pastor