“I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44.22). 

Jesus gave His life to liberate me from my sins. How shall I continue to fear alienation from Him?! Every day and every moment in the day, He is with me. He beckons me to return to Him because He has redeemed me. He loves me.

“There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love” (1 John 4.17-18). When God’s love works itself out in and through me, it drives out fear.  It is perfect, complete, and maturing love.  But if I make my own choices in life …if I refuse to submit to God’s will in God’s way, then I will fear God’s response in this life and the life to come.  But why?  Because fear involves punishment. If God’s love has not reached its full expression in me, I may not understand as a believer that there is no need to fear retribution from God.  I am in Jesus Christ. He has redeemed me; I will return to Him.