I Am Loved and Not Afraid

And again, this is Pastor Carter Conlin coming to you all the way from my house to your house, just with this devotional series, which we decided to call Why I'm Not Afraid. I'm not afraid. I'm 66 years old today, and I have COPD, and I have an immune system issue, and so of all people out there in the middle of the coronavirus situation, I should be afraid, but I'm not, and that's not just an idle boast. I'm not afraid. My heart is completely at rest. I feel like the Apostle Paul, for example, like to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So I've learned over the years that I'm in the hands of God, no matter what happens. We've lost three homes. God has always looked after us. We've come through flood and fire and trial and difficulty, and God has always been there. But today, I want to talk to you about a perfect love that casts out fear. Let me read it to you now from the book of 1 John 4, verse 18, where he says, There is no fear in love, because perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment, because he who fears has not been made perfect in love. So what does it mean, perfect love casts out fear? How does that work in my life? Well, firstly, and foremost, it is the understanding that I am perfectly loved by God. I am loved by God to the max, whether I'm performing in his sight well lately and whether I'm not. As his child, I can't earn his love. His love was given to me. It's called imputed in the Bible. It was freely given to me when he died for me on the cross and rose from the dead. The day that I received him as my Savior, I became perfectly loved in the sight of God the Father through Jesus Christ his Son. I can't be any more loved by God than I am today. And that love, Jesus said, has sealed me in the hand of God the Father, and no man can take me out of that hand. So I am in the hands of God as you are. I am perfectly loved by God as you love those that are around you. If we're able to love people around us, just imagine how much God loves us. And then the second part of that is I have asked the Lord to help me to love people around me the way he does, and so that his love in me, flowing through me, casts out the fear of people, the fear of rejection, all the fears, the fear of tomorrow. All those fears are now gone. And this can be yours too as well. If it's not today, just ask him, say, Lord, teach me about your perfect love and give me the grace that I need to get through this time in my life. You are loved by God. You have nothing to be afraid of. I'm not afraid, and neither will you be. God bless you, and we'll see you again tomorrow.