[Songs in the Night - December 14]
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. I John 4:18
THERE is a proper fear or reverence and disinclination
to offend our Heavenly Father and our Redeemer,
which we wish never to lose.
Perfect love will
not cast out this fear, but rather intensify it.
The
fear which love casts out is timidity, a servile fear or
dread of the Lord or of Satan, or the fallen angels,
or of men and what they might do unto us.
Perfect
love cannot be attained without knowledge, faith, courage,
and overcoming.
It is the result of the exercise
of all this divine arrangement that brings us nearer to
God and makes us truly thankful and appreciative of
his gracious purposes and omnipotent power for their
accomplishment. Z'09-122 R4379:1 (Hymn 305)