I DO! – Fire and Ice – June 14th

I DO
June 14, 2021

Fire and Ice

1 John 4:17-18, ‘God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.’ (MSG)

Just as oil and water do not mix, neither does fear and love. Imagine a jug that has oil in the bottom of it, stuck to the sides in the form of little droplets. As you pour water into the container, the oil, we find, climbs to the surface of the water where it remains, and as you continue to add more water, the oil eventually emerges and is the first to spill from the jug’s confines, thus being emptied out.

So it is with God’s love. Imagine that fear, like the oil, has seeped in the crevices of your being. It clings to your innermost self in hidden places. In the beginning, it only is apparent at rare times, at odd times. But as the vapor of fear materializes and increases, it begins to take up more space, until suddenly, the fear is all you can concentrate on, the reflection of every imagination you peer into. It can wrap itself around you; it can grip you, snuff the life out of you, as it takes hold and squeezes tight.

Imagine God’s love then that comes loudly and fully in the form of an emphatic ‘I Do’. The purity of it, the beauty of it, the wholesomeness and grandeur of His love for you. He pours it into you when you allow Him to, and as He floods your innermost being with His perfect love, the fear that had entangled itself inside of you is now rising to the surface on the veneer of God’s great love. He fills you to overflowing, and everything that once was inside, spills out, including the fear that once gripped and paralyzed you.

Once His love permeates us, fear cannot remain. The two will never, no, never, mix, just as oil and water, dark and light, fire and ice, never will either.

What a promise ‘I Do’ is! Whether we are committing to a person
or simply being intentional in life, our word should be a cherished commodity.
This month, journey with me in ‘I Do’ moments which are an oath, a vow, a pact,
a pledge, an honorarium.