The order of things

(Pre-Script: The most loving way to read this post is while the song, "She Will Be Loved," #12 on the playlist, plays in the background, so go down to the playlist, click on that song, then come back and resume reading. I'll wait...) (...still waiting...)

The opposite of fear is love.

The first thing is to love God.

But we can't love God until He loves us first. He loves us, we have to receive it, we have to know that we are constantly being saturated in it, it causes us to grow and be healed. Then we can love Him back.

The second thing is to love our neighbor (aka "anyone who is not self") as ourselves. In other words, it is already assumed that we love ourselves, because we have received and reciprocated the unconditional love that God has for us. In other words,we will only be able to love other people to the degree that we already love ourselves. In other words we can only love ourselves to the degree of the love we have received from God. God wants to lavish it on. I believe this. When we receive it, we are complete and whole, and wholly effective. It's not possible to love without having received the unconditional lavish love of God, loving Him back, and loving ourselves fiercely, since He loves us so much, and we are just agreeing with His assessment of our own worth and lovableness, not because of anything we have done, but because God made us that way and decided it was so. If I have not received this from God, then Anything else I do that looks like love is really just an attempt on my own part to receive and fill my own empty void where I am lacking. These actions may look or feel loving to someone else for a time, but soon they will start to rub the person wrong, and make him or her feel drained. They will start to make ME feel drained, then bitter that I am still so empty, then more desperate than ever. Real love is freeing.

What do I fear? Whatever it is, it represents an area of my heart where I am not free.

And I want to be free.

What do I do as a result of my fear or insecurity, for any action I do out of fear or insecurity is not done out of love. so any action I do that is fear or insecurity based is not freeing or healing to myself or anyone else, it is instead harmful to myself or anyone else.

Insecurity is pride.

It is saying that my bad opinion of myself is more true than God's opinion of me. True humility is in agreeing with what God says is true of me.

So what am I afraid of, and why am I not letting God's love be the antidote to it, and how do I do that, and what does that look like?

"There is no fear in love, But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us."

I John 4:18-19

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and prophets hang on these two commands."

Matthew 22:37-40

-XOXO,