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To Enjoy Perfect Love, July 5
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because
fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
1
John 4:18
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This is an important statement; for there are many who desire to love
and serve God, and yet when afflictions comes upon them, they do not
discern the love of God in it, but the hand of the enemy. They mourn and
murmur and complain; but this is not the fruit of love to God in the soul.
If we have perfect love, we shall know that God is not seeking to injure
us, but that in the midst of trials, and griefs, and pains, He is seeking to
make us perfect, and to test the quality of our faith. When we cease to
worry about the future, and begin to believe that God loves us, and means
to do us good, we shall trust Him as a child trusts a loving parent. Then
our troubles and torments will disappear, and our will will be swallowed
up in the will of God
Through an abiding Christ you will become Christlike in character.
The Lord desires you to stand by His side, as a kind, patient, humble son
of God. The Lord designs that the laborers in His service shall represent
His love....
Our relations with one another should be pleasant. When we do right,
the testimony of our own spirit and the testimony of the Spirit of God bear
witness that the human mind is under the control of the divine mind.... His
Word furnishes evidence from which we may draw the conclusion that
we are indeed His sons and daughters.... True love for God carries with it
true, reverential trust. And he who loves God will love his brother also
“Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three,”—faith, which
takes hold of Omnipotence and refuses to be baffled; hope, which turns
the future triumphs of the good and the true into present encouragement
and joy; and love, which consecrates all to God and for God
[194]
14
The Youth’s Instructor, January 6, 1898
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15
Letter 174a, 1902
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16
Letter 42, 1901
.
200