Perfect Love

1 John 4:18a "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."

I have often struggled with this verse---because I am a fear-filled person. I often feel like my anxieties take on a life of their own and run away, dragging me along. 

So if Jesus's perfect Love casts out fear--why do I struggle so? 

I don't think that I have fully arrived at an answer but I do think that it is at least partially because I fail to recognize the fullness of the love that He has for me.

A Love--that seeks to draw me--orchestrating every message I hear, every blog that I read, every word that is said--so that I hear His voice-- so that I hear Him call. (Acts 17)

A Love--that sends His servants to be the hands and feet of His love here on earth--so that even in the hardest moments when I feel alone and forgotten He holds me close in the tangible arms of the body of Christ.

A Love--that does not expect me to be perfect--(though I often think it does)--that forgives me and gives me grace beyond what I can comprehend. 

A Love-- that made me--formed me in my mother's womb--fearfully and wonderfully made --marked out for a purpose before time began. 

A Love--that deigns to use me to speak and show His love--that "all earth may know!" 

Romans 8:32 "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"