The Little Letters - Day 17

1 John 4:16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?

“Perfect love casts out all fear. . .”  This has got to be one of my favorite verses ever!
But I don’t think we live like we have no fear. We have a tendency to live in deep and almost despondent fear at times. Is it because we don’t think our love is perfect? It does seem, however, that God’s love supplants itself within us in order for us to be able to live fearlessly. 
It is clear that we are not supposed to fear any judgement, because we are loving in the love of Chirst, and therefore we have nothing to fear if that same Christ is our judge. Paul makes this argument over and over. We have nothing to fear from judgement, because our lawyer is also our judge, and that means that things are stacked in our favor!

When I was 17 years old I was sitting in front of a judge for the 3rd time. I got quite a few traffic tickets before I was 18. Six, to be exact! The tought part was that I was pretty sure that this time I was going to be getting my license suspended. This would have been pretty difficult as my job was running deliveries for my mothers court-reporting business.
 
As I sat thinking about the argument I was going to make, the judge comes in, and we all stand. He calls out my case and I stand before him. He asks me what happened and I told him about the stop sign that I had missed, and where it was.

Interestingly, he said that he lived in the same area and there was no stop sign at that intersection. I told him that I didn’t think there was either, but then showed him the pictures I took. Apparently, they had just put up the stop sign a few weeks prior to me being stopped, which was on the 3rd day of its presence at that intersection.
 
The judge looked at me and said: “I live there, and I am pretty sure I ran that stop sign this morning! Case Dismissed!” I had never been so happy in my life! I got to keep my license, my job, and my freedom! It is great having the judge on your side. And this is also how it is with Jesus being on our side. He is our advocate and our judge!

1. When have you had a judge on your side? 
2. Have you ever had one that was not on your side? 
3. How did it feel? 
4. Do you live in fear, or does God love push that away from you?