To Enjoy Perfect Love, July 5

To Enjoy Perfect Love, July 5

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18.

This is an important statement; for there are many who desire to love and serve God, and yet when afflictions comes upon them, they do not discern the love of God in it, but the hand of the enemy. They mourn and murmur and complain; but this is not the fruit of love to God in the soul. If we have perfect love, we shall know that God is not seeking to injure us, but that in the midst of trials, and griefs, and pains, He is seeking to make us perfect, and to test the quality of our faith. When we cease to worry about the future, and begin to believe that God loves us, and means to do us good, we shall trust Him as a child trusts a loving parent. Then our troubles and torments will disappear, and our will will be swallowed up in the will of God.14

Through an abiding Christ you will become Christlike in character. The Lord desires you to stand by His side, as a kind, patient, humble son of God. The Lord designs that the laborers in His service shall represent His love....

Our relations with one another should be pleasant. When we do right, the testimony of our own spirit and the testimony of the Spirit of God bear witness that the human mind is under the control of the divine mind.... His Word furnishes evidence from which we may draw the conclusion that we are indeed His sons and daughters.... True love for God carries with it true, reverential trust. And he who loves God will love his brother also.15

“Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three,”—faith, which takes hold of Omnipotence and refuses to be baffled; hope, which turns the future triumphs of the good and the true into present encouragement and joy; and love, which consecrates all to God and for God.16 [194]