Hosanna Restoration Church

Since the day I was saved, I have tried to figure out how God managed to do it. Each time I ponder it I think I find another piece of the puzzle but it would take many pages to begin to mention all the different pieces because it seems that each piece has many fragments. I do know that love and fear were two large pieces that God used and I never even saw them coming.

God puts in every person He creates a desire to love and be loved. There is a part of that love that actually creates fear and there is His perfect love that cast out the fear. Love without Christ makes us fearful of both giving and receiving. We are afraid to give too much because it hurts if the love ends and the same is true of receiving the love of another, because they might change their mind. The fear of losing those we love can make us into really strange folks. This was part of the package that God used on me.

I was blessed to have the wife that I have and then when our first child was born that was just icing on the cake. The problem began when I found myself fearful of something happening to him. Soon I found myself lying awake at night imagining what I would do to anyone who might harm him. Through that and other things, God put it in our hearts that our son needed to know something about Jesus. Believe me it had to be God, since we certainly were not concerned about things of God at the time. Still we went to a Bible study and the love of God managed to give peace to those fears. Of course there was a lot more that God did, but that was one amazing revelation when I realized that I no longer spent my time imagining what I would do to hurt someone who hurt my child, but rather I imagined how I would forgive them and share Jesus with them.

Fear is a debilitating thing and only God’s perfect love can overcome fear. His love gives us peace when things do not go right because we know how He loves us and we trust His good plans for us. His love assures us that if the whole world turns against us and we have nothing, that very soon we will receive a double blessing. His love assures us that He is taking care of those we love. His love also sets us free to love those that hate us and saves us from bitterness and pain.

His love opens the door to the good land He has promised us. His love enables us to continue to stand even after we feel like we have done all we can and simply trust His word. His love makes us wise and able to discern the lies of the enemy. His love recognizes the first symptoms of fear and casts down those imaginations before they can interfere with our trust in God.

The sooner we accept His great love and then release it in our own lives, the sooner we begin to walk in all of His promises and accomplish what He has called us to accomplish. The world really does need love. The perfected love of God poured out by us.