The Power of Perfect Love

Send us Fan Mail“…when we invite God into our worry, we begin to realize that more than any solution, He wants to give us a Savior. He wants to invite us into an intimate and personal relationship with His Son.”1“The counteragent for worry isn’t control. It’s faith rooted in love.”IntroductionLouie opens by telling a story about when he was in college. He was in a long-distance relationship with Shelley, his wife. She was going to school at Baylor University. He would often get in the car and drive for hours just to see Shelley for a few minutes.He did these things because he was hopelessly in love with Shelley.God’s Great Love For You“Do you realize God has left a stunningly powerful message of love for you? He hung the greatest ‘I love you’ of all time on a tree at Calvary through the death of His Son. You can see His message from wherever you are today if you just turn and look toward the cross.”“He has never loved you more because of your good deeds, nor has He ever loved you less because of the sinful acts you have committed. He is love. His love is unchanging. It is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”“In His love we have the only weapon we’ll ever need to extinguish and eradicate worry from our lives.”What’s Your Operating System?“We have a hardware (our bodies) and a software (our minds and spirits). When it comes to winning the war on worry by recognizing the power of perfect love, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, what operating system are we using?”“This is the breakdown of where most of our worry comes from: Fear → Control → Worry”“We entertain feelings of fear, often stemming from questions starting with, “What if?” Think back to chapter 1: What if I get sick? What if I don’t measure up? What if I lose a loved one or my job or my house? What if she walks away from the marriage? What if people found out just how broken I am?”“Our fear leads us to try to control. To try to stand up and straighten up. To take the necessary actions to avoid negative outcomes. But our shoulders were never meant to carry the weight of being in full control.”“So, as we realize that control is actually quicksand pulling us even farther under, we begin to worry.”“Fear spawns the need for control, which gives birth to worry. And from worry comes a whole host of unhealthy practices and compromises.”“If that’s the formula for how the world operates, what about how we as children of God should operate? It goes like this:  Love→Surrender → Trust”“When we invite God into our worry and dwell in an abiding relationship with Jesus, our operating system shifts. Instead of fear being the motivator for our lives, we start with love.”“That’s what Scripture means when it says in 1 John 4:18-19: ‘There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.’”“When we experience and internalize the perfect love of God, there is no room for fear.”“Perfect love drives out fear. And once fear is gone, we no longer have the pressing need for control.”“Instead, we can be free to fully surrender and...