Stay in love. Don’t get out of it. If you will do this, your love will fully develop, in which there is a deep settled peace and rest. There is no fear in fully developed love. Fear has torment and unrest. As you continue in and abide in love, fear and distrust will lose its grip and confidence and tranquility of heart will grow. Fully developed love gives you a calm boldness in the face of adversities and a resoluteness of purpose in your daily life which gives you strength to do those things that need to be done for the good of all. Through the love of God operating in us, we are able to see beyond the obstacles and see what the Savior can do for all situations and circumstances, and seeing that, we can give ourselves in that love to be that ready and willing vessel for him to work through all to bring the needed solution. Stay in love, and see the solution. (Thoughts from 1 John 4: 7-21; 5: 1-5)
Tethered with this is John 15: 5-10, especially verse 9 – same author, same line of thought: “…He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing…As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” It is interesting to note that the words “dwell” in 1 John 4, “abide” and “continue” in John 15: 5, 9 are all the same Greek word meaning “to stay.” The Bible says God is love, so if we abide or stay in Jesus, then we are abiding or staying in God, and this is one and the same as continuing in love, and if we do this, our love grows and matures, and fear, torment, and distrust diminishes. This is good news! There is a way to overcome the blows and the lashes and the traps and the temptations, and the doubts, despair, disillusionment, and the defeat that our experiences in the world have laid on us and sent our way. We don’t need to be gullible, but we can stay in love, in God’s love, and in believing his Word, and live out the way of abundant life and liberty in our particular situation. We can overcome our failures and our fears and rise up to stand in the station in which we find ourselves, and fulfill the destiny to which we are called. We do it by staying in love, continuing in God’s love, abiding in Jesus. 2-13-15
