Love… And… Fear

FRI., MAR. 9, 1984, 6:25 AM
FARM, STUDY

You had a definite spiritual experience this week, o son, and these terms do identify it. It definitely reemphasized the place of the story in a presentation… even provided you with several that will help start your next series. I was there, but in a muted form. So I shall speak of this experience as the sun rises in front of you.

Love is certainly the most important function of the human creation. Put in your professional terms, the capacity to love and to express that love is the single most important element of health (though health is truly an holistic concept and involves a great many elements). The person who loves fully and easily is healthier than one who has lesser capacities, even though other dimensions and elements may not be the same.

You see, love… true love… comes directly from Me, even though this may not be acknowledged. I love you, and therefore you have the capacity and the desire to love others. As you love others, your capacity increases, for as love is felt and expressed the capacity grows… through this “exercise”. As another is loved he is more able to love… for of course with babies and small children the first love experience is with other people (except those who come into earth life already highly developed spiritually… such ones discern My love quickly and directly).

“Love never faileth”. You recall that short Biblical sentence from the sanctuary at Central Union Church. It is true, of course, in the large, global sense. Love never fails to have some positive effect in any situation. But in the practical matters of daily life it does not work miracles every time. Love may not keep a person alive whose physical heart stops from lack of circulation. Love can modify response to pain, but it mostly cannot eliminate pain. A great outpouring of love cannot halt all hostilities in Central American nations on this day. So, yes, love does seem to “fail”… but, overall, it accomplishes much that is important.

Fear is one of love’s opposites. It is a response, sometimes realistic and sometimes overmagnified, to the dangers apparent in earth life. Early life experiences are important. The one who experiences more fear than love is more apt to fear and will find it more difficult to give and receive love. At the same time fear makes evident the need for love. Love can blunt, even erase, fear, but when you “relax” and become “lax” in your loving, fear can invade and “fill the gap”. Love is inherently the greater power, but the balances vary greatly in individual persons.

“Love is letting go of fear”. Some do hold onto fear… even get some comfort from holding to certain fears. Fear does prevent love from being manifested. And yet love is the only real means of halting and diminishing that fear. So when you do truly let go of a fear it is virtually always love that is the means. Therefore it is quite appropriate to affirm that “love is letting go of fear.” Love is the means, and love, then, should be the substitute for fear.