每日灵修 – 2024 年 8 月 30 日
爱能驱除恐惧
加里·威尔克森
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我们中的许多人都有过被人拒绝、抛弃或伤害的经历。这些经历不仅体现在我们的思想中,还体现在我们的身份和世界观中。我们可以整天对自己说“哦,我不是没有人爱的。我不是被抛弃的人。”但这些还不足以解决我们内心的情感问题。我们必须有更高尚的东西来让我们摆脱束缚我们的情感痛苦或对我们作为上帝之子的价值的指责。
生活中,我曾多次感到自己不够好,并对自己说:“我觉得自己不配……”让我摆脱这种不配感的方法是将我的心放在更高的力量上。这就是我的意思。如果我觉得自己不够好,那么我会说:“我想成为一个向他人倾注上帝之爱的人。”
记住这节经文:“爱里没有惧怕,爱完全了,就把惧怕除去……” (约翰一书 4:18,ESV)。我认为我们可以用很多东西来代替这节经文中的“惧怕”。上帝完美的爱会驱除无能感。完美的爱会驱除孤独感。完美的爱会驱除防御心理。
我们如何才能获得完全的快乐和自信?我认为,我们无法通过坦白承认阻碍我们实现目标的因素,或者照镜子告诉自己:“我很有价值!我很有价值!”来真正实现快乐和自信。这些行为并不够有力。
然而,不断回顾上帝对我们作为他孩子的评价,有助于我们不会忘记他对我们的大爱。努力成为上帝的人,像耶稣一样生活,会给我们带来更大的力量来克服那些会影响我们决定的情感痛苦和怀疑。这就是为什么圣经告诉我们“……要将你们的心志改换一新,并且穿上新人,这新人是照着上帝的形像造的,有真理的仁义和圣洁” (以弗所书 4:23-24)。
DAILY DEVOTIONAL – August 30, 2024
Love Casts Out Fear
By Gary Wilkerson
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Many of us have had formative experiences of being rejected, abandoned or hurt by people. These are experiences we feel not just in our thoughts but in the very fabric of who we are and how we view the world. We can say things to ourselves like “Oh, I’m not unloved. I’m not an outcast.” all day long, but that’s not enough to deal with the emotional core in us. We must have something higher to set us free from binding emotional pain or accusations against our worth as God’s children.
Many times in life, I’ve struggled with a sense of not being enough and saying to myself, “I don’t feel worthy…” What’s set me free from that sense of unworthiness has been setting my heart on a higher power. Here’s what I mean. If I feel like I’m not enough, then I will say, “I want to be a man who pours out God’s love on other people.”
Remember this scripture: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…” (1 John 4:18, ESV). I think that we could put many things in the place of ‘fear’ in this verse. God’s perfect love casts out a sense of inadequacy. Perfect love casts out loneliness. Perfect love casts out defensiveness.
How do we come into a place of perfect joy and confidence? I don’t think it can genuinely come from trying to confess out what’s holding us back from those things or looking into a mirror and telling ourselves, “I’m worthy! I’m worthy!” Those actions aren’t powerful enough.
Constantly returning to what God says about us as his children, however, helps us not lose sight of his great love for us. Contending to be a man of God and live like Jesus gives us something greater to overcome those emotional pains and doubts that would color our decisions. This is why scripture tells us “…to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24).