Motivations – The Presidential Prayer Team

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. – 1 John 4:18

Psychologists will tell you that the two greatest emotional motivators are love and fear. Fear is a primal instinct, is generally negative, but will move a person toward self-security. Politicians thrive on using it to persuade the public. Psychologists are divided on whether love is primal. They agree it is basic, but mysterious and part of one’s spiritual make-up. While fear makes a person act toward finding security, love provides the assurance of that security.

As you rest secure in God’s love, feelings of vulnerability and helplessness fade. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul wrote, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.” Think about those three things. A spirit of power when attached to the will of God, provides confidence, and the feeling that things will go well with you. Love takes you out of yourself, and helps you focus on others, on being of service to them. And a spirit of self-control, or of a sound mind as some translations put it, keeps the disciplined Christian listening to God’s still small voice of direction.

At a time when fear tempts followers of Christ to look at circumstances, rely on today’s verse, claiming it, staving off fear. Pray for those who are becoming candidates in the coming election and that politicians would seek to present a positive vision for America, rather than casting fear.

Today’s Verse: 1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: 1 John 4:7-19

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶So 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. ¹⁷By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us.