Fear No Fear

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

For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.
Jeremiah 17:8 (emphasis added)

I cannot emphasise listening to the voice of the Lord strongly enough. It is just as important as getting into the Word and praising Him every day. At the start of your day. At the end of your day. And at all the times in between. When you spend that time getting close to the Lord, deciding to set your love on Jesus, His Father, and The Holy Spirit; you can’t help but hear His voice. But it still takes practice. Even fifteen minutes a day focused on the Word and the Lord who speaks from it makes a difference. You’ll find your spiritual muscles strengthening as you are faithful. Day by day, growing up into Him. That fifteen minutes will become more. Hearing will become easier. Abiding will start to be second nature. It is vitally important if you want to experience everything that the Lord has in store for you.

In my household we do not, as a rule, buy canned goods. I am not saying there is anything wrong with them, but we tend toward whole plant foods and most canned goods are processed. It’s our choice, please don’t judge us. A while ago the Lord started nudging us to buy canned goods. Beans, fruits, tomato paste, mushrooms, and other things like that. They were foods we regularly consumed, but we either bought them fresh or frozen (which nutritionally is 2nd best to fresh) or as in the case of beans, dried. We do a lot of cooking from scratch. Although I didn’t understand why, we did it. To tell the truth, we would have bought food we didn’t normally eat if He had told us to, because we strive to be obedient. We assumed there was going to be a donation to the food bank in the future. There wasn’t.

Time passed. More time passed. And then – out of the blue – there was a health concern at my partner’s workplace. They needed to self-isolate (and by extension and close contact that included us). Immediately. Guess what? Canned food to the rescue. Anytime something got low, there were cans waiting to bridge the gap. We isolated the full time and did not feel the lack. In fact, if it wasn’t for my partner not leaving the home we never would have noticed we were isolated. People offered to get supplies for us if we needed it — including the manager of the workplace which was nice of them, but we didn’t. We had everything we needed. Because we listened. We were spending daily time with the Lord and when He spoke we heard Him because we were training our ear to hear His voice. Consequently, we did what we were supposed to do when we were supposed to do it, and we were supplied in our need.

We did not fear. When the call came saying isolate immediately right now — we weren’t afraid. We were not concerned, even though we were supposed to be in a time of wanting or drought – unable to get fresh food. But we were fine, more than fine. We didn’t come near to going through what we normally would have. Of experiencing what even two years ago we would have because of our outlook. It was great.

“yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him” (1 Corinthians 8:6). God is our Source. All things come from Him and all things go through Him. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow” (James 1:7). And it doesn’t matter if we are talking stuff here in the physical or stuff in the spiritual. God provides for all our needs. “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

But what about when an emergency occurs and nothing has been prepared? Holy Spirit has not nudged at all? Well, a little later we got another call, told to isolate — but we had nothing prepared. Not a single can set aside. Not a single bag in the freezer beyond normal food levels. But we did not fear. Why? God had NOT said to store up. We were given no warning from the Lord at all. We still didn’t fear. That might not make sense, but it is a matter of trust. Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path (Psalm 119:105). Do you trust Him to guide you? To prepare you when you need to be prepared and to keep you from wasting your time and resources when you do not? “let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). We actively choose to do this. To live this way.

Guess what? Within 2 hours there was a follow-up call saying no isolation needed. We literally had nothing to fear. ““Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant. May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers. Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as every day requires; that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh himself is God. There is no one else” (1 Kings 8:56-60). Not one word has failed. Not one word of His promises has failed. And what was a promise of Jesus? “But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). Expectancy is born out of the promises of God’s Word. Because He who promised is faithful and not one word of His promises has failed.

When you are seeking the Lord and spending time with Him, He will be right there coaching you. “However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine and will declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine and will declare it to you” (John 16:13-15). That sounds like another promise. Remember: not one word has failed!

If you listen and obey — without delay — there will be no fear in you and no fear will be able to be in you because you will have total belief that He has you. That He will have you prepared. That He will tell you exactly what to do. It isn’t denying the reality of a difficult situation, it’s denying the difficult situation the power to make you afraid or alter your ‘happy in the Lord’ state of mind. When God is for you, who can be against you (Romans 8:31)?

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: John 3:14-21

Man is a spirit being housed in a physical body. When the physical body dies, the spirit being is going to keep on living. The spirit being will live for eternity. The only question is where you are going to spend eternity. Will you choose to spend it somewhere that you have no control over your mind or spirit? Where you are at the complete mercy of external forces with nothing and no one to relieve you? Or will you choose to spend eternity with your full faculties in love and worship of the Lord God Almighty? It is a simple choice. And you WILL choose. God wants you to choose life. He wants you to choose BLESSING. Under the Law, the time after death is the WORLD OF RECKONING. For those in active rebellion or active rejection, the time after death is the WORLD OF ABSENCE. Under Grace, the time after death is the WORLD OF BLESSING. He sent His only son to die in place of you so that sin could be paid for. He came not to judge us but to purchase life for us. An eternal life without hunger or thirst. He is so desperate for you to choose wisely. To take what He is freely gifting. To choose Him and His Son and His Spirit, God EVERLASTING. His mercy endures forever. He has paid the price in the hope you’ll accept. You don’t have to. But He loves you too much not to remove every impediment that could ever exist between you and the right choice. He loves you too much to force your choice. It is — and always was — up to you. He wants you to choose life. Have you? He loves you so much. Step into His Grace today.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.