I Will Not Be Afraid; Love Is with Me

          Everyone’s talking about it right now.  It’s at the back of everyone’s mind.  “What do I do?  What if I get it??”  Coronavirus; or COVID-19.  It’s taking over a lot of people’s minds.  Things are being canceled, postponed, or people don’t even show up to the things that aren’t!

          Why is this happening?  What is going on?  Is this the end?  Many are probably wondering those thoughts.  A lot of those people are people who have no hope.  They are operating out of a spirit of fear.  They don’t know what to do.

          But for those of us who are Christians—followers of Christ—we have a hope!  A living hope!  We aren’t to act like those around us who have fear.  Jesus gave us a spirit NOT of fear!  But of power, love, and self-control!  (2 Tim. 1:7.)

         We are to operate in power, love, and self-control.  But what does that look like?  It looks like dressing yourself in the power of Jesus’ name, drenching yourself in His love, and taking captive of the thoughts that are haunting you.  People will see that there’s something different about you when you are partnering with the Holy Spirit.

         That love mentioned in 2 Timothy, that He gave us, is the Holy Spirit; because God is love (1 Jn. 4:8)!  There’s nothing special we need to do to have love.  All we need to do is embrace Jesus, acknowledge Him as Lord, let Him rule in our lives, and He will shine love through us.  God longs to partner with us in every area of our lives!

         The Holy Spirit is perfect, and perfect love casts out all fear (1 Jn. 4:18)!  So, although we aren’t perfect, God gave us His perfect self.  He entrusts us with His perfect.  We can never do anything that will corrupt His perfectness, but He loves us enough to let us have it.  Embracing His perfect love will in turn cast out all our fears.

         Love. Never. Fails.  (1 Cor. 13:8.)  Remember that God is love?  Yeah.  Love never lets us down.  God will never let us down.  He is the perfect Father.  And though there are all these people around us who are getting sick, and dying from COVID-19, God is a good Dad who will watch over us, and protect us.  Simply trust in Him, and don’t be afraid; because He is with us.

         We were not given fear, but Jesus gave us power, love, and self-control.  He gave us Himself, because God is love.  God is perfect, and perfect love drives fear far, far away.  And that love we’ve been given never fails us.