Praise Before My Breakthrough: A 5-Day Devotional By Bryan and Katie TorwaltSampel

BE WITH ME - 1 John 4:13-19 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”. I love this passage of scripture in 1 John chapter 4. When we encounter the love of God, we become more and more aware of His desire to just be with us, and to pour out His love on us. The Presence of God becomes a necessity in our lives, and our desire will be to abide with God, and have his love and Presence abide with us. Something that always strikes me when I read the chapters written by John, is his confidence in the Love of God. Not just a “God Loves Everyone” type of confidence, but he knew deep down inside that God loved him personally and wanted to be with him. He had so much confidence in this fact, that throughout the gospel of John you even see him refer to himself as “the one whom Jesus loved”! When we make ourselves available and aware of the Presence of God, the more confident we become in who God is. And the more we intentionally spend time with Him listening to His voice, the more secure we become in who we are, and the fact that there nothing more or less we can do to attain or separate us from the love of God. He just loves us fully and completely and His desire is to be with us. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear!” One of the greatest hinderances to a relationship with God is fear. The fear of not being worthy of love, of not measuring up, the fear of punishment or of being exposed all keep us from being who we are truly meant to be. However when we encounter the love of God, his perfect love begins to melt away all those fears and insecurities, until we like children who know their father can come before him confident in who we are because of who He is and what He’s done for us. As you read through this scripture or listen to this song, let the Love of God break down more walls of fear and insecurity and let God in to abide with us!