Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
John 10:10 (emphasis added)

Today’s verse sums up the foundational deal of this world. Adonai wanted nothing but good things for us. The devil wanted the opposite. He wanted wreck Adonai’s creation. He preyed on our free will to get Adam to replace Adonai in their heart with him. Sin entered the world because of free will and creation fell. So when bad things happen they are the result of free will decisions by humanity, natural processes of this fallen world, or the devil manipulating circumstances to cause pain. His goal is kill everything and destroy everything. When good things happen – no matter how big or small – they are ALWAYS from Adonai.

People like to argue that. It’s because we’ve accepted the idea that Adonai is all about judgment. Yet He is not. All the judging that is ever going to happen has already happened. Either we are in Jesus or we are against Jesus. We are either saved or we remain under the judgment of sin. Adonai poured out His wrath on sin through the cross. It’s over. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God” (John 3:17-18). Adonai is LOVE and He took care of it all for us. We only need to trust Him. “He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness. But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham’s sake, but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification” (Romans 4:20-25).

We trust that Adonai is telling the truth when He says He can save us. We trust that Adonai is telling the truth when He says that obedience to His point of view is the basis of the demonstration of our love for Him. We trust that Adonai is telling the truth when He says that we can have what He says we can have. We trust that Adonai is telling the truth when He says He wants us to have LIFE abundantly. This doesn’t mean a trouble-free life, but a life filled to the fullness with Him – who is Love. It means we are designed for GOODNESS and RIGHTEOUSNESS. We can ONLY achieve that through Messiah JESUS.

This is the source of all HEALTH. It doesn’t matter what kind of health we are talking about. It all comes from Adonai. We TRUST Him on it. What does His WORD say? It says that sickness can’t come close to the dwelling (building or body) of those who are dwelling in Adonai like a fortress (Psalm 91). It says that we were healed through the vehicle of the cross and what Jesus accomplished there (1 Peter 2:24, Matthew 8:16-17). It says that Adonai actively watches over His Word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12). It says that when we ask according to what He says in His Word, He grants it to us (1 John 5:14-15). It says that He CAN do what He SAYS He can do (Romans 4:21). This covers spiritual health. This covers mental health. This covers national health. This covers personal health. This covers church health. This covers physical health. This covers adult health. This covers the health of children. This covers ALL health. It comes down to TRUST.

Where we can have problems is trusting when there is no evidence of anything happening. When our symptoms (regardless of the kind or sphere of sickness) speak to us louder than the Word. But it is STILL a matter of trust. We build trust through relationship. We build relationship through trust. It is a two-way street. And the Word is the way we do it (Romans 10:17). It renews us to His point of view (Romans 12:2). It helps us decide that His place is His place and His viewpoint is the ONLY one that matters (Proverbs 3:6). It helps us place ourselves and keep ourselves right in the centre of His will (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Adonai is Merciful. Adonai is Love. Adonai is Grace. The thief is everything Adonai is not. More than anything it means that he cannot be trusted. All he has since the resurrection are his words (Revelation 1:18). He will say anything, promise anything, shout, scream, cajole, beg, whimper, whine, nag, and lie. Whatever it takes. Doesn’t matter if he can deliver, he’ll still promise. He will get us to trade what is rightfully OURS for what is rightfully HIS. Authority and dominion for rebellion and death. It’s all he has. And he’s been doing it since he conned the snake into letting him use the snake’s gift to con Eve and through Eve, get Adam to rebel. He has no new tricks. He does it over and over again, repacking it for every new generation and cultural thought.

If the narrative behind everything bad cannot be trusted and the love behind everything good can, it should be a no-brainer. Yet we struggle. We struggle because the thief does the opposite of what we think a thief does. He think of thieves as sneaky. Creeping around. But that isn’t what he does. Instead, he makes a LOT of noise. “Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering” (1 Peter 5:8-9). The thief makes noise to scare us. To flush us out. To make us panic. And the thief does it on a GLOBAL scale. Everywhere he can. Hoping to make it like floodwaters to wash away all the good in the world. To make us give up. To make us give in. To make us focus on the scum on the surface of the water instead of the deep, cool, and clean depths.

We need to constantly remind ourselves to focus on the GOOD and not the bad. The LIFE and not the noise. If we’re running with our eyes squeezed shut and our ears covered, we’re likely to run right off a cliff. But if we acknowledge the GOODNESS and TRUSTWORTHINESS of Adonai, we can submit to His point of view and stand on the TRUTH. If we do that, it doesn’t matter how loud the thief gets. It doesn’t matter how much they beat against the rock. We’ll be dry, stable, and secure. If we submit and stand on the Word, the devil WILL flee (James 4:7). He’ll still lose and we will be living abundantly in the overcoming victory that we have in Jesus (John 16:33).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 90:2

“Even before the mountains came into existence, or you brought the world into being, you were the eternal God.” Messiah was to be unique. He is from everlasting. He IS eternal. He IS Elohim. Before things were, He was. Yet here on Earth He had a place where He was to start. “As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah—from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins are in the distant past” (Micah 5:2). That start was after the timeless place where He was. Messiah would come from everlasting and become Flesh in Bethlehem Ephrathah. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God” (John 1:1). Jesus IS the Word. Jesus IS from everlasting. Jesus IS from Bethlehem. Jesus IS the Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b