Love in the face of fear.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
They are of the world.

Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

We are of God.
He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us.
By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.
-1 John 4:4-19

This is a hard excerpt from scripture to swallow. The end message is that HE LOVES US, but the first part means we actually have to acknowledge that we know He loves us... and sometimes that's hard to do. We often don't see ourselves as His beloved little children. I don't think I've ever woken up thinking... "I am God's beloved little child." Most of the time I wake up thanking God for who He is, but never considering how He may feel about ME, His child.

It would be a lie to run away from it.

I've been finding it difficult to pull things to the surface. We spend each day surrounded by tasks and interactions with people and to do lists and maybe a friendly conversation or two. It's not too often that I (or others) really sit down and get to the meat of it all. That's what love is. If God is love, then those conversations are essential. God gets down to the bare bone with us because He LOVES US, and in turn, we should do that for one another.

I think the Bible calls it out perfectly - it's fear that paralyzes us from love.

I know I've put some thoughts out there, and to be honest - I don't have an answer for this. I guess that's why I've put it out here... for your input. This is been stretching in my brain the past couple days. Let me know what you think.