“Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection…” 1 John 4:18-19.

Whenever we recognise that we are afraid, we need to ask the Holy Spirit where it is we need to repent, and/or, where we need His healing love to touch us. Fear is a flashing signboard … it calls our attention to something that is wrong somewhere. There is only one good sort of fear, and that is the reverential fear of the Lord! Other types of fear are flung at us by the enemy, they become opportunities to learn more about ourselves and the Lord. Remember, fear always comes from the other guy. Use his attacks to alert you to the bigger reality of God’s Love.

Jesus Christ was kind and caring toward everybody. He even warned His enemies – the people who would eventually kill Him, and they too were given an opportunity to change. Right here, right now, you and I no longer have to fear. Jesus loves us perfectly. So now – TODAY, we can go through that door/gate that Christ’s broken, resurrected body provided, into our Heavenly Father’s Presence. Because our personal debt has been paid. We start to remember that we need to live forgiving lives, and now we give away for free what we got for free. 

Psalm 100:4 tells us how to come into His Presence.“You can pass through His open gates with the password of praise. Come right into His Presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to Him and affectionately bless His beautiful Name!”

I exhort you to never forget, whenever you feel you have hit a road-block, (spiritually speaking,) to look at the cross and start praising God for every single thing He did there. The stuff you already know and the stuff you don’t know, yet.Then start listing what He has done in your life already, and keep on going, until you are smiling.That is what “forget not all His benefits” means. It means make an effort to remember them – remind yourself  … on purpose! Some days that can be a big effort. So start to thank Him for your family, friends etc. – the nice ones, and… the not-so-nice ones. That’s called blessing those who hurt you!

I have no idea why we think … and most of us do! … that complaining a whole lot about other people is going to help them improve … or …  maybe, make us feel better. Another dumb idea from the pit. I dunno about you, but doing that doesn’t help me at all – it just magnifies the problem. But praising and giving thanks, opens the door/gate into a totally different perspective. It is easier to access love when you turn the tap of criticism, disappointment and despair OFF.  

Sometimes our generic complaining attitudes mean we actually cannot see any good because we have been overcome by the bad. At that moment my advice is to read the bible aloud, so your ears can hear something other than bad stuff. Preferably the Epistles which are full of totally brilliant things. Then ask for His help.The Holy Spirit will not do things like this for us. Instead we need to remember that WE are the ones with the power to turn things around. That’s why it sometimes seems so hard!

Seriously, we cannot use our badly chosen attitudes to duck out of our own responsibilities. We simply have to choose to change. Jesus died to give US power, over sin, this world and the devil. It is useless to ask the Lord Jesus to redo the things He already did! What He did was once and for all, and permanent. Ask Him for the courage to do things differently. Then begin by thanking Him that He loves you. His love is never negated by our bad attitudes..

My advice is this: we need to deliberately carry our own cross, and embrace whatever that means in our day-to-day lives. The cross is an instrument of torture and death – so it will hurt. But we are to live with the hope of total spiritual resurrection, every single day. Whatever we get into – HE can get us out of it. His love came to each one of us and brought us into a whole new dimension – where love always wins. 👋🏻