Knowing God Through Love
Open Your Bible
1 John 4:1-19, Psalm 36:1-12, John 15:18-21, 1 Peter 2:1-3
BY Kaitlin Wernet
It happened every night, first at 1:27 a.m. and then again at 4:02 a.m.. A low warning whistle would signal its arrival, followed by a roaring screech that thundered through our sleeping city, only waking me. Its rumble traveled from a cracked window to the front door to my bedpost, then disappeared as quickly as it came.
That train on nearby tracks opened my eyes to the darkness. I’d seen the sky turn black before going to bed, of course, but I hadn’t felt it. Suddenly, I was hyper aware that at any moment, my safe foundation could be shaken and destroyed. There, in my bed with white sheets and a black headboard, I began a countdown to sunrise, staying awake to prevent the darkness from swallowing me.
Each morning, I’d attribute my sleepy eyes to the train, but each night, I’d remember it was fear.
I began recognizing minor details as “warning” signs—ambulance sirens, missed calls, late arrivals—and became sure something dubious was headed my way. I didn’t know what that something was, but I knew its tracks were headed in my direction.
Fear is ominous and undefined in both feeling and concept. There are times I know exactly what I’m afraid of, and others when I’m just plain afraid. Many nights, I’d sit up on those white bed sheets, Bible open on my lap, wrestling with anxiety. Over and over again, I ran into the same command: Do not fear. It appears generously throughout God’s Word, yet I’d never come across a concrete definition of “fear” by itself. But what reason do we have to not fear? When the walls begin to shake and the darkness closes in, how exactly do we just “not fear”?
When the train began to rumble into town, I wasn’t sure how to put the brakes on my fear—but I knew I could turn on the lights. Reaching over to turn on the lamp on my bedside table somehow illuminated my confidence enough to step out of bed and look outside. From my window, the street lights glowed and the train’s headlights shone in the darkness. I wonder if this is why fear isn’t clearly defined in the Bible, because it cannot stand alone. To really know it, we must turn on the lights.
And in this case, when it comes to our fears, it is by His light, by knowing Him, that we are really able to see and make sense of what’s around us (Psalm 36:9). To know Him, we must remember His love; He Himself is love (1John 4:16). And when we know His love, we know what it is not: fear. Because “there is no fear in love… perfect love drives out fear” (v.18, emphasis mine).
I’ve always read that verse in the context of my loving relationships, but what if we could also believe it in the context of our worst fears? If God is love, and there is no fear in love, then there is no fear in God. And because we are from God, He leaves the lights on for us. Held to the standard of God’s perfect love, fears don’t stand a chance. Maybe trying not to fear isn’t so impossible if it sends us searching for the light (John 8:12). May we always hold up pieces of darkness to the brilliance of His love.
78 thoughts on "Knowing God Through Love"
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I like to look up words in the dictionary that I read in my bible to get a fresh perspective on their meaning. Today I looked up the words in 1 Peter 2:1… malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. Convicting, yes. It causes me to pause before God, acknowledge those sins and receive His grace.
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So as I was reading the devotional by Kaitlin it remind me of one of my favorite songs “Fear Is a Liar” by Zach Williams. The verse goes like this:
Fear, he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
‘Cause fear he is a liar.
The first time I heard this song it really spoke to me because in many of the words of the verses I can see myself. to I have found when I am afraid the best thing for me to do is to take to the Lord. He seems to always be able to take my fears away. Just remember my sisters “Fear Is a Liar”. -
This message is so timely. First let me say our God is so good. Night before last I started having some breathing issues, where my chest was tight and I couldn’t take deep breaths. Now is not the time to have anxiety attacks. Unbeknownst to me at the time that is what was happening. But all I could think was I don’t have any other symptoms and is this related to the virus. So I prayed for our world and asked God to heal it. The next morning, yesterday, it got worse, and finally I started texting my Physicians assistant. Checked my pulse, blood pressure at home which was all fine. She patiently went over things and I was going to meet her at the clinic in an hour if i didn’t feel better. and head to the er if it got worse. I texted relatives to pray and my daughters’ church prayed and I lay back and prayed and God took it and my breathing was restored. Fear, and anxiety for some is their body reacting physically to what is going on around them, others can be a chemical reaction to something they are taking. For many it is debilitating and feels like prison. In my past I felt horrible when I would have these times of anxiety. Please Pray for those imprisoned to be set free. Fear is a liar and God’s light illuminates that He is the healer. Praying for those struggling with anxiety, the peace that surpasses all understanding be yours, Jesus hold those paralyzed right now and bring your peace, grace and mighty love. Thank you for taking that away from me and giving me breath. I love you my Lord and Redeemer. Heal us in Jesus name Amen.
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My 80 year old mom lives in our home and she has night lights in her bedroom and all the way to the bathroom. I like it very dark at night and it’s amazing to me how just a little nightlight brightens the paths. In these readings we see contrasts between evil/darkness and love/ light. It only takes a little of God’s light to outshine the darkness. His perfect love casts out fear❤️ The reading also warns those in Christ to not get to cozy with the world. These antichrists would like people to remain in darkness but if we are in Christ we have the light in us.
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Love your analogy with the night light – how it doesn’t take much to light up the hallways and that running to God offers instant light. Thanks for sharing! ♥️
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Fear, worry, and/or anxiety can all be so overwhelming, and no doubt, we have all experienced one or all of these, maybe even within the past month of the pandemic. My mother-in-law is a natural worrier and the pandemic has thrown her into over-drive. We call multiple times a day, send cards, flowers, etc., yet her fear is making her literally ill. She “knows” the LORD, but she is clinging to her fear instead of clinging to HIM. Today, I am praying that her fears send her” searching for the light” (John 8:12). and her darkness will be covered with “the brilliance of His love.”
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Praying in agreement with you for your mother-in-law, NanaK. ❤️
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Praying for your mother in law!
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I loved the comparison of the light (Gods love) and the dark (fear). It reminds me of the song – fear is a liar. It’s so easy to believe, yet when the light turns on and we see can see the comparison it drives out the fear. Thank you Jesus that we don’t have to live in fear but can trust and walk in your light forever changed!
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John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
This devotion reminded me of this today. I have clung to this verse in times where I felt everything around and within me was just simply dark.
In these uncertain times, I’m going to be clinging to it again this week. Because just because I’ve done wrong or the world is in turmoil, doesn’t mean that God is wrong or bad. It doesn’t even mean we have to be wrong or bad. Praying God illuminates this verse in my soul this week, so I can shine in the darkness and not be overcome by my own or the world’s.
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Fear is dispelled by knowing love.
Know God know love.
How do you know God?
It is not enough to read the Bible. If that was so, the many atheists that I have met who know the Bible better than most Christians, would know God and yet they do not.
It is not enough to know about God, you have to know God.
This is the exact question that Nicodemus was about when he approached Jesus in John chapter 3. Nicodemus doesn’t know the nature of his questioning, he wants to know how Jesus attained his knowledge of God, the intimate knowledge of knowing God that he, a lifelong student and teacher of God’s word had somehow missed.
Jesus explains it’s not what you know, it’s who you know and the way to know God is by rebirth. A rebirth of the inner man, the rebirth of the spirit.
Jesus in this chapter and many others in John explains that this, spiritual rebirth, is something that God does in us. Paul emphasizes in Romans that it’s not by works or doing things that makes us born again, but by this internal working of God, the new man the rebirth is God’s work. Good works we do are a result of that, and good works God has prepared for us to do.
Backwards from every other religion!
We are new because God has changed us and in doing so we are fundamentally different than before.
What we are before we know God is pitiful, sinful and hopelessly lost. There is nothing in us that can attain knowing God. In fact if we were to approach God we would die because ourselves are terribly horrible. Prideful, murderers, hateful, spiteful, ungrateful, unloving, unholy, people. And that’s just the start of what we are without knowing God.
However, God solved this problem by making it possible to know Him. While we were busy being terrible, He became one of us, walked among us, lived according to how God’s love dictates and then paid the ultimate price for a life full of the worst offenses, death.
If it had stopped there, his payment for our offense, we would still be left to the end, the grave.
But God wasn’t content for the story stay in the grave, wasn’t content with just punishment being satisfied, God resurrected Jesus from the grave.
With that death, on the cross, the old is taken and put in the grave. The murderer, the pride, the thief, the hateful old man, that person is put to death. But a new person is resurrected with the resurrection of Christ. While Christ took the old human nature and killed it, a new nature is born within us, the nature of Christ, the nature of Love, God’s love, is born within us with the resurrection of Christ.
Nothing is more intimate than knowing a person who is living inside you.
That sounds so … odd, but is the inception of being born again. The rebirth, the spiritual birth of God’s spirit living inside you. In this was you can know God, not just know about Him.
Once that rebirth has occurred, you test whether or not it’s your flesh, your own heart or the voice of God chatting in your self. By the word of God.
Read your Bible.
Read the gospels over and over again to get a grasp on the character of Jesus. Read the Old Testament to get a grasp on the consistency of God the father and read the epistles, letters, to understand the gap between the old covenant and the new covenant we have in Christ and to understand what faith looks like.
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❤️❤️❤️❤️
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Just Wow! Excellent!
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