| No Fear A popular bumper sticker and emblem on T-shirts these days is “No Fear.” Teenagers like to appear tough and brave. But we live in a world full of fear. The threat of war, a gun pointed to our head, a terminal illness, the threat of loss of the necessities of life or loved ones strike fear in the carnal heart, whose prime objective is its own happiness, well-being, comfort and benefit. The answer to fear is love. When we realize the love and care that the great God of the universe has for us, when we are imbued with this love for our fellow man, all fear disappears, regardless of the threat. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear... he that fears has not been perfected in [this] love.”[240] Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace. It does not depend on any circumstances in life, on the amount of possessions or number of friends. Happiness drawn from the Fountain of Living Water can never fail. God invites us to simply give Him a chance, to try his ways. “Taste and see that the LORD is good!”[241] After “wining and dining” Satan all our lives, isn’t it only fair we give God’s ways a chance? |
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| 240 I John 4:17 241 Psalm 34:8 |
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| Love is not love which alters when it alteration findeth Or bends with the remover to remove O no! It is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his brushing sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me be proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. —William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVI |