Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling.
Psalm 46:1-3(emphasis added)

When you abide in the Lord, trouble doesn’t trouble you. Trouble happens. Emotional, financial, and physical. But if the Lord is your strength and your refuge, it doesn’t happen to you as much as it happens around you. It’s hard to explain. It’s like nothing else. This isn’t denial. This isn’t going to your happy place to avoid life. This isn’t traumatic dissociation. This isn’t not understanding how serious it is. This isn’t singing Over the Rainbow while dancing on your lawn as bombs drop around you. This is supernatural.

Imagine not knowing what was going to happen as your life crumbled, but instead of crumbling WITH it there was a CONFIDENCE in you. An ‘OKAY’. Not a guarantee that things are going to be fine from a worldly point of view. I mean, people die. Bank accounts empty. Things break. But you know that someone HAS you. That it IS going to be fine. That in your inside self – in your spirit – things are fine. Sunny day fine. There is confidence. YOU don’t know but SOMEONE knows and that someone can tell YOU what steps to take and can CATCH you if there is going to be a fall because YOU listen to THEM.

I’m also not talking about blind obedience to a code of ethics. Blind obedience doesn’t bring comfort. It can bring even more anxiety as you wonder if you did all the steps. If you missed something. If you said Jeebus and not Jesus when you were praying just then. I’m talking about trust from love. Loving Yahweh God and following Him from devotion, not adherence. Doing what He asks and says when He asks and says it not because you fear a consequence or seek a reward, but for the opportunity to please Him. ‘Do I please you, Lord?’ is a far superior question to ‘Am I being obedient?’ In loving Him and seeking to please Him there is a trust that is fostered. A trust that He has you because of the myriad of times this is spoken, re-spoken, and echoed in the Word. It is a covenant of love, not of Law. And our God is a God who keeps Covenant.

The Lord knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Before the foundation of the world, He decided what He was going to do and how it was going to end (1 Peter 1:19-20). He gave us free will. He isn’t forcing us to do anything. He is loving us and seeking our love in return. Not by force, but by request. By offer. Whatever we choose, He lets us do and backs us up. But He’s not going to stop telling us the right way. His way. His wants. What He has coming. He doesn’t want us to miss out. He doesn’t want us to be standing outside the fence when the moves happen. Because He is God and He knows what is coming. He knows what is going to happen. He knows what ground is shifting, moving, and collapsing. And He has provision for whoever calls upon Him and walks in His ways.

What are we told happens once we believe in God, accept Jesus as Saviour, and make Him Lord of our lives? “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new” (1 Corinthians 5:17). “And raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). “For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). “And if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). We are not normal. We are not fallen humans. We are new. We have the DNA of the Kingdom within us. We are renewed and IN Jesus and HE is in US. Guess what? We know the end from the beginning too because Jesus keeps nothing from us (John 15:15).

It’s true. Jesus calls us little gods in John 10:34. He’s quoting Psalm 82:6 that says “I said, “You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High.” We are part of the family. This doesn’t mean we in ourselves are gods. That is an occult teaching to place self over sacrifice. Don’t be fooled. There is NONE like God (Jeremiah 10:6). However, we are inducted into the mystery of God’s family through Jesus. Not ourselves. Him. Psalm 82:7 says “nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.” Our flesh will cease, even though our spirits will not die. In JESUS we are as we will be. In ourselves we have no power. John 15:5 tells us clearly from Jesus’ own lips that without Him we can do nothing. But that is exactly how we know the end from the beginning. “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Jesus doesn’t keep secrets. From the moment we got saved, the book of Revelation started speaking differently to us. The end was declared to your spirit. Jesus IMMEDIATELY started telling you that He wins. Which means we win. By Grace, through Faith, we are all things in Jesus.

Faith is a decision. You decide to pick faith up. Not just yours, but His. He is holding it out to you by Grace. You didn’t deserve it. None of us do. But the Lord holds it out to us just the same. You pick it up and hold onto it. The black and white and red words of the Bible are true PERIOD. The Lord doesn’t lie PERIOD. The Lord is with you PERIOD. The Lord is victorious PERIOD. We can live a life assuming that everything in that book is, was, and will come to pass PERIOD. Every time a problem shows up and we give it to the Lord, we know the ending. We win. Does that mean it will end how we want? No. Does that mean we can declare exactly how we want things to go and have them go that way? No. It means we give it to the Lord and do what HE says to do. Which is maybe something or maybe nothing. His choice because He knows the details. We know the ending. At the end, it won’t be a problem anymore. We see the mountaintops. God sees all the valleys as well.

Our words have power. Our words have meaning. We have to watch what we say. When we say it. And how we say it. Because we have dominion on this planet. Our authority is in Jesus. We need to speak according to His Will. We know that Will because of the Word. You want to talk about life goals? How about not speaking anything ever that isn’t Word-based. That’s not quoting scripture all day long (but that’s not wrong either). It is not speaking anything that is against the values of the Word. Everything we speak comes from somewhere. For believers, that somewhere needs to be the Word. You will struggle with it. Everyone does. I do. Understanding where words come from takes a lot of thought. It takes pausing before you speak. It isn’t easy. But it is simple. Speak life. Speak words based on the values and intent of the Word. Always. You won’t cut each other down, promote immorality even as entertainment, you’ll flee strife, you’ll build up others, you’ll be humble and true to His Spirit. The more we abide in the Word and thoughtfully get it into us, the more that will come out of us.

Look around the world today and you will see a flood of things happening. Wars. New wars ramping up and rumours of them abounding. Natural disasters. Shootings. Abuses. Violence. And fear. Oh my, the fear. All kinds are being offered up. Fears of sickness, of viruses, of the vaccines for the viruses, of new viruses, theft, rape, murder, the death of children, bugs in the garden, the economy, toilet paper shortages, fuel prices, grocery prices, and even whether your favourite star will be in your favourite new movie in your favourite film franchise. It is truly ridiculously prevalent. It is a mess. A confusing, cross-messaged mess. We get one set of things from the world’s sources. We get another set from the church. Whose voice within which camp do you listen to? Whose voice within which camp that contradicts the other voices is speaking truth? Just one. The Spirit of Truth (John 14:17). It doesn’t matter what is said from whom to whom. Holy Spirit within you will tell you what to listen to and what not to. The Spirit sees more than we can, says more than we often chose to listen to, and has the full, complete, and total knowledge of Jesus to get into us. And it will NEVER contradict the Word. That’s why we need it inside us. Why we need to store it up by thinking on it, reading it with intent and focus, and why we need to pray it. To charge our atmosphere with the Word.

The Word is the gold standard. It is the heart of God. It is the will of God. It is the Word of God. It is the all and everything that we need. It can be entertainment. It is always there to teach, inspire, create, and renew. It is the past and the present and the future. It is always up to date and ready to bring comfort, peace, and wisdom. It is there to show us our solutions and help us to praise through the problems to the end that the Lord declares when we bring our life to Him.

Read it. Listen to it as you read. Take it in. Love God. Choose to obey. Choose to believe. And praise Him because He deserves it. PERIOD. No other reason. Just tell God that He is a GOOD God. That His steadfast love and mercy endures forever. Repeat it or something like it all day long. Every time you think of it, say it. To yourself, out loud, under your breath, say it. Don’t worry about what it exactly means in every nuance or what interpretation you agree with or what that thing is that you don’t quite understand. Let the Word of God permeate you. Fill you to overflowing. Believe and say it. Walk in faith. By choice. Be fully persuaded. Not about what you see, but what the Lord says. About what you choose to believe.

Guess what? God does NOT lie. The Lord IS with you. And the Lord knows exactly what you need to do and NO ONE catches like Jesus catches. No matter what happens on a physical world level, you are A-O-KAY.

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.
He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear.
He burns the chariots in the fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Yahweh of Armies is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Psalm 46:9-11

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Jeremiah 31:33-37

You love your kids. You love your friends. They misstep and you forgive them. Sometimes you don’t want to, but you do. The Lord does too. He had to help us cover up our sins for a long time. Then Jesus died and He was able to forget our sin. Now we could be worthy to be in His presence again. NOT by anything we could do, but by the sacrifice of Jesus. By the New Covenant. From the least of us to the greatest of us, we can know Him, stand with Him, and fellowship with Him in Jesus because of what Jesus did. Now think about that. What that means is that for those who believe Jesus is the only Son of God who took sin on Himself, died for us, and was raised again to life for us; those people are part of the New Covenant. Every other human on the planet exists under the Old Covenant. I’ve read that thing. You should too. Genesis to Deuteronomy. Joshua to Malachi. There is a lot there. And it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt we can’t do it. Sin is gonna rise up and get us. Again and again. Only Jesus can save us. Only Jesus’ sacrifice can deliver us. When we accept that and believe and by His Grace through Faith take it in? Whoooooosh!!!!! Sin gone. Forever. It doesn’t rise up again. Happy faces. We can climb into the lap of the Lord God Himself and go to sleep. From now on Holy Spirit is there to help us not fall back into the habit of the flesh and sin. And there to help us through and into true repentance if we do. Isn’t that beautiful?

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.