Love? Yes! Fear? Not!

Often other people attempt to intimidate us, try to threaten us, and even occasionally curse us because we belong to Christ. I learned this firsthand yesterday as I stopped to help a homeless man along the interstate highway. I had compassion on him. His obvious lack of care broke my heart. So dirty. No possessions. His shoes were coming apart at the soles.

As I carefully and prayerfully approached, I extended a sack of food and a fresh bottle of water to him in Jesus' name. I said tenderly, "Brother, would you like some food?" He came unglued. "I am not your brother!" Then he yelled to the top of his voice something about the devil and started to curse me violently saying, "I hate Christians and Christianity!"

Refusing the food, his arms began to flail in an attempt to back me away. It worked. It wasn't that I was tormented with fear, I just knew he wanted me away from him. Obviously, there was a spirit about him that was not at all happy to encounter me as a believer of The Living God. As I moved back towards my vehicle, I never turned my face from him and just gently and lovingly with an inviting voice spoke the name of Jesus over and over as he continued to curse me. "Jesus. Jesus. Jesus."

When I pulled away, I said to the Lord, "That hurt my heart." However, I continued to pray for that poor, lost soul, living along the highway like an abandoned animal. His pain, so much greater than mine, is still in my heart a day later.

As I journeyed home along the interstate highway, I sensed the Lord saying to me, "Do not underestimate how powerful repeating my name, 'Jesus', in that pitiful man's tormented presence over and over will affect the rest of his life. You will hear the rest of that story in heaven."

Last evening these verses were on my mind:

(6) The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? (7) Yes, the Lord is for me; He will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me. (8) It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.
-- Psalm 118:6-8 (NLT)

Dear children, you belong to God. So you have won the victory over these people, because the One Who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
1 John 4:4 (GWT)

No fear exists where His love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn’t have perfect love.
-- 1 John 4:18 (GWT)

Love? Yes! Fear? Not!
Grateful