Fear No Fear

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

For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not be afraid of evil news. His heart is steadfast, trusting Yahweh. His heart is established. He will not be afraid in the end when he sees his adversaries.
Psalm 112:6-8 (emphasis added)

It is easy to fear. It is easy to let circumstances take us over. It is easy for us to be concerned and anxious when we look at the things happening in the world today. Jesus knew it would be. And He had something to say about it in Matthew 24:6-8 “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.“

Fear happens. It springs up in us because we have fallen. Our flesh wants to embrace it, because it is the blood of this world. Fear is the distorted faith of Adam. It is the life of the curse of sin. Just as Jesus’ faith is the life of the Kingdom. As believers, we have been given Jesus’ faith (Romans 12:3). We all have the same faith. And we are to use it. We are to use it to reject fear. It’s like an umbrella. Rain (fear) will fall. We can get wet, or we can use an umbrella (faith) to stay dry. It’s a decision. The rain is still there. The temperature might be lower. We might not feel awesome. But we’re dry. And being dry, we can ignore the effects of fear even when we know they are happening at the same time. The exact wording of Romans 12:3 is that we have A measure of faith or THE measure of faith (depending on your translation). Singular. We all have been apportioned the same amount. How much we operate in it is determined by our will and how much we get into the Word (Romans 12:6). It’s no good to dwell in the Word if we choose to not use our given faith. It’s no good to try and use our given faith if we choose not to dwell in the Word. They go hand in hand (Romans 10:17).

Capacity is often thought of in terms of volume. How much something holds. But the definition of capacity is so much more. It is legal competency. It is a mental and physical ability. It is the potential or suitability for holding, storing, or accommodating. It is the faculty or potential for treating, experiencing, or appreciating. Size-wise, we all have the same faith. Quality-wise we all have the same faith. We have the measure and nature of Jesus’ faith (Romans 3:21-22). But is it strengthened? Have we grown into our spiritual capacity? A muscle is no good to you if you haven’t developed it. Faith is the same way. We all have the same amount, but we are not all exercising it. We are not all operating at the same strength. But we can be. Faith is strengthened as we use it. We’re enabled to use it as we grow its suitability and potential — its capacity. And we do that by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Faith is not just the currency of the Kingdom of God (Romans 14:23). It isn’t just a requirement in our relationship with the Lord (Hebrews 11:6-8). It will increasingly be needed by each believer to walk through this world without stumbling.

Terrible things are destined to occur on this earth. It is steeped in the curse of sin. In death. In rebellion. It is moving inexorably toward its end. We can try and ignore it. We can claim there is something we can do to improve or stop it. We can wail and worry about it. We can point to all that we can study and understand in our Selves and push the warnings away. But God is a spirit. And we are also spirit. The Kingdom is spirit. If we want to experience heaven on earth, if we want to be calm and cool, then we need to live by the spirit and not the flesh. We need to abide in the Word and let it renew our minds (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:2-4). If we do, we will live in peace. Peace that cannot be understood. The Peace of God. We will lie down and not be afraid, sleeping sweetly without care or burden. We won’t be startled into fear or anxiety by the condition of the world around us because the Lord will have us (Proverbs 3:24-26). We can trust in the Lord in all things and trust Him to guide us (Proverbs 3:5-7). But we do all that in Jesus, through Jesus, and that is only by grounding ourselves in the Word. It is the breath that should course through us. For every thought that comes up, we should have an idea of what the Word says about it — which is something Holy Spirit can bring to our conscious mind once we have absorbed the Word through reading and meditation on it (John 14:26).

It is the first and greatest commandment of the Kingdom: “Jesus answered, “The greatest is: ‘Hear Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment” (Mark 9:29-30 and Deuteronomy 6:4-5). It takes discipline and it takes daily application. But it will literally open the doors of heaven to you and infuse you with all the blessings of the heavenly places now in this life and beyond (Ephesians 1:3-23). This is the process that kills anxiety, depression, and can heal all mental wounds. You’ve heard it said that healing takes a lifetime. That we need to work on healing ourselves. This is the bedrock of therapy. And in the natural this is true. And helpful. But in the spiritual, it is not true. In the spiritual, we can receive healing. We can in an instant be healed. No longer broken. No longer suffering anxiety or depression or any of the mental woes that so cripple us. A memory or experience may still exist in our heads, but it will have no power to affect us. It will be as emotionally crippling as a memory of taking out the trash or walking the dog.

That is the power of the Word. That is the capacity of our faith that we can walk in. Being fully persuaded that what the Word says is true. That what God says He can do, He can in fact do. When we build the strength of that persuasion, when we use the Word to saturate our lives and make it real to our day-to-day existence, we can walk in confidence. Something happens, but we know we’ve been promised we’re okay. Disaster strikes, but we know we can claim peace in the middle of it. Issues rise, stresses pile up, the unknown looms, but we walk in peace. Tranquil. Not thanking God for what is happening or ignoring it, but praising the Lord that He is there with us, that He has a plan, and that He has already won our victories. In all things praising the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Not letting our hearts be troubled (John 14:1). Because the Lord sustains us in all and through all (Psalm 112). Believe it. Receive it. And walk in it.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 2 Chronicles 6:40-42

This is the end of the prayer that Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple he built. It has two very important pieces. One is the mention of the Lord’s steadfast love. And the second is David, the former king – and of Goliath fame. David was a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). David sought closeness with God. It also says that David would carry out all the Lord’s wishes. David was so successful at these two things—in spite of failures— that the kings of the country were thereafter referred to as either a king of Israel (meaning they did NOT follow God and did evil things) or a son of David (they were godly and tried to be righteous). The Lord so loved David and David so loved the Lord that he became a benchmark for humanity’s interactions with God. Be close to the Lord. The Lord wants to share His heart with you. Get in the Word and see what it says.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.