Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

And Yahweh passed over before him, and he proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh, God, who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding with loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love to the thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and he does not leave utterly unpunished, punishing the guilt of fathers on sons and on sons of sons on third and fourth generations.”

Exodus 34:6-7

Can you remember the weight of your personal sins? Can you remember the weight of sin itself? Usually you won’t have that sense of them as a thing in your day to day life, but you may remember that feeling when you were saved. The weight that you didn’t know you were carrying that was suddenly gone. The ability you suddenly had to stand upright. You may never have realised that you were bent over, hunched down, and struggling until it was gone. But Adonai faithfully removed it and keeps it off of you. It is NEVER going back. You will never EVER feel its weight again.

“who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we may die to sins and live to righteousness, by whose wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus took our sins and He also took sin and He bore them in His own body. He dragged that weight to the cross and it was nailed to that tree through Himself. He did that so that we could accept His payment of our debt AND His taking the judgment of sin on Himself (Romans 6:23; Genesis 2:17). It’s like having someone pay for your meal in a restaurant, your parents picking up your tab for something (a bill, a coffee, or your tuition), or the person in front of you buying your coffee in the drive through. You were on the hook for it, and now you are not. IF you let Him pay it. You COULD force your money on whomever it is that you originally owed. You COULD demand that it is YOUR RIGHT to have that debt. That NO ONE is going to take YOUR identity, YOUR independence, YOUR efforts, or YOUR name. You could refuse the governor’s pardon and insist on being executed. You really can. But what has to be wrong with your thinking to decide to do that? I mean, we are ALWAYS talking to each other about ways to avoid payment. About deals that exist and why we should grab for them. How is this ANY different?

“The thief comes only so that he can steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). The ONLY reason the devil does ANYTHING is to get worship. That is his SINGLE motivation. He isn’t trying to get you degraded, wallowing in sin. That disgusts him. But he’ll help make it happen if you won’t worship him. No one with integrity, honour, or rightstanding would worship him – which is what he wants. So instead he tries to destroy us. That means that from the MOMENT you are saved, he is ready, willing, and able to tell you all about how it DIDN’T happen. He reminds you of sins, he reminds you of decisions that led to sins, he reminds you of thoughts that led to the decisions that led to sins. Basically, he wants your life on a loop of worst-ever-highlights. Because he has seen how the human mind works. He knows our brains were meant to focus and dwell. The intent was to focus and dwell on Adonai without the burden of evil thoughts. But if he can get us to focus and dwell on our failings, then we won’t have time to spare for Adonai’s blessings.

Ruach HaKodesh reminds us every day, even every moment needed within that day, that we are LIGHTER THAN A FEATHER. “Yahweh upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down” (Psalm 145:14). David knew what he was talking about. He fell so many times, but Adonai always pulled him back up again. David KNEW the mercies and goodness of Adonai and he praised Adonai for them. A lot. And we have what He didn’t. We enjoy a relationship he couldn’t (Hebrews 8:6). It’s easy to forget, which is why Ruach HaKodesh reminds us. All the time. We are SOMETHING in Jesus. We are FREE in Jesus. We have POWER in Jesus. We have DOMINION in Jesus. We can NURTURE through Jesus. We can BLESS through Jesus. We are SAVED because of Jesus. It goes ON and ON and ON and ON and ON. We ARE the righteousness of Adonai in Messiah Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). The devil wants us to forget that, ignore that, and get burdened by our pasts. But we are NEW. We aren’t those people anymore. We can take lessons from it, but we aren’t our pasts.

The biggest reminder Ruach HaKodesh gives is not ‘this isn’t that’ but IT ISN’T THERE. This is going to pay your mortgage and finding out it doesn’t exist anymore – paid in full. This is going to a dealership to look at a car and being handed the keys – paid for. This is going to an open house and being handed a deed – in your name. This is realizing that nothing is on your back. You are FREE. We are FREE and when we have full knowledge of it, we will know it in such a way that NO ONE and NOTHING can take it away from us (John 8:36). Jesus made us FREE and REMOVED sin. Ruach HaKodesh comforts us with the repeated and consistent reminder that we ARE free. Indeed.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Isaiah 43:25

“I, I am the one who blots out your transgressions for my sake, and I will not remember your sins.” We have trouble forgiving people. Don’t deny it. We all know it is hard. Because we remember what they did. When you remember, you want to get all full of feelings again. You want to make those feelings into emotions again. If you do, it impacts your ability to remain in the state of having forgiven them. Forgiveness is a verb because it is an action. But it is not one and done, unless you CHOOSE to remind yourself of the FORGIVENESS instead of the OFFENSE every time it comes to mind. Adonai doesn’t have this problem. He blots it out like it never existed. The page is there, but there is no negative writing on it anymore. You can’t tell there’s been ANY writing on it. And infinite, all-knowing Adonai WILL not remember them. It is a CHOICE. And when Adonai makes a choice, you know that He can be trusted. And if He has separated sin from you (sin and personal sins) in such a distance that HE cannot see them, why are WE choosing to keep them so near? It isn’t about forgetting the incidents (that we might be able to learn from), but the feelings and negative associations connected to them. The guilt. The shame. The anger. The hurt. The things that can lead to anxiety. He provides healing for ALL of that. He makes it so that it NEVER happened. The chains are dissolved. The burdens lifted. We are FREE of it. And we never, EVER need to go back. What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8