Fear No Fear

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

By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:27 (emphasis added)

When I did something wrong as a kid, I looked behind me. Not right away. Not while it was happening. But as soon as I was out of sight? You’d better believe I looked behind me to see if I had someone after me. And then I ran.

The first time Moses left Egypt, he was running. Probably looked behind himself a bunch of times. He was, after all, a wanted murderer. He ran right out into the wilderness, crossed a desert, and sat down by a well. Alone. Broke. Tired. A far cry from a prince of Egypt. Adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. But Moses had killed a man. An Egyptian. While trying to help the Israelites. All this is in Exodus chapters one and two. Moses killed the man in secret, but it turned out not to be secret. And he got scared. He was afraid of Pharaoh and ran away. He had good reason to. The Bible says Pharaoh sought to kill Moses for it. But Moses ran and hid. BUT that isn’t what it says. It says he ran NOT FEARING Pharoah. He was fearful he’d messed up his mission as rescuer of his people. He was fearful he had lost the ONE opportunity to do what God had for him. He was not running because he was fearful of Pharaoh. He was fearful he had missed God.

That doesn’t sound like faith (faith is trust, running is not trust).

But Moses kept looking for God. He kept looking for a sign it was okay. For forty years he looked. And Moses met God in that far off country. Spoke with him face to burning bush. Yahweh spoke and Moses accepted an assignment — but not without some whining about it. This doesn’t sound like faith. But it was obedience. He did go do the things. He spoke to Pharaoh — a different Pharaoh by this time because it had been forty years — and demanded the release of the Israelites on behalf of the Lord. Moses brought the plagues that God released to him to call down. And after the gods of Egypt were humbled, broken, and shown to be ineffective against Yahweh God — the Israelites were let go out of the wreck that was Egypt.

Now we see real faith.

There were a lot of Israelites. About six hundred thousand men plus children. On foot. Now Psalm 105:17 says “He brought them out with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.” Even with no one sick, six hundred thousand plus don’t move fast. The Lord had just destroyed Egypt. Exodus 10:7 says “Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve Yahweh, their God. Don’t you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?” That’s tremendous. Out they went away from a nation that had been brutalised. The long way round they went. Down into the wilderness by the Red Sea. And they camped by the sea.

Pharaoh had a change of heart — again, it was about his sixth or seventh or something like that. Not the first time anyway — and came against the Israelites with 600 chariots. Thing is, Yahweh told Moses about it ahead of time. The Lord spoke to Moses and told him they were coming and that God was behind it and that God would triumph against the Egyptians and get honour over Pharaoh. But that was it. No details.

Now we see faith.

With the Egyptians coming down on them. With the Israelites screaming and declaring that they were going to die and it would be all Moses’ fault, Moses stretched out his hand and God divided the water of the Red Sea. The Israelites crossed. Pharaoh tried to as well. God closed the sea on the Egyptians. The Israelites were free. And Moses didn’t have advance plans of it. Just the words of the Lord. By faith Moses accepted them. By faith, Moses believed. And by faith, Moses never turned back. Moses acted on his belief. That is faith.
That’s what we’re called to do. Believe that the Lord will do what the Lord says that He will do. No, most of us aren’t hearing audible words. But we have THE WORD. There are promises in it. Check it out. They’re all for you. God said it. You can have it. There are conditions to some of them, but that’s okay. Don’t sweat it. Jesus isn’t. We shouldn’t be either.

Why would we be told to get into the Word to strengthen our faith if our faith didn’t need to be strengthened? It is common sense if you think of your faith like a muscle. Muscles can be built up. Muscles can atrophy. It all depends on our usage of them. You can choose to be active and healthy. You can choose to be weak and shaky. It is a lot of work. We start small and work our way up. It doesn’t matter if we start as kids or if we are restarting in our retirement. We can choose at any time to start moving and building those muscles. We can recover the use of our body in most cases by movement and strengthening exercises. We’re not talking about conditions caused by disease and sickness here, just the natural and broad brush stroke human condition. We can choose to give in to weakness or we can choose to reject weakness and build up our strength.

It works the same way spiritually. If we get into the Word with intent, it will build up our muscles. It doesn’t work if you’re not asking Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to you, reveal the Father to you, to reveal Himself to you as you read. It doesn’t work if you’re not approaching the Word as food and drink for your spirit. That is one of the messages of communion. Jesus was the Word. We eat His body and drink His blood at the communion table. We also eat His body when we devour the Word. It is life to us (John 6:63 and Hebrews 4:12). It is medicine to us (Proverbs 3:8). If we use it as a tool to build us up, it will bring to our spirit strength and depth. If we do not use it as a tool to build us up, our spirit atrophies.

It isn’t enough to read it. Reading it is good. I’m not knocking reading it. But there are people who read the bible every year and have a love-hate relationship with it. Seeing negatives in the Word. Seeing things that don’t jive with today’s world. They struggle with it. These people are reading the Word, but not with intent. Not with revelation in mind. They are not being built up. We need to consume the Word. As food. As sustenance. As the thing that is going to keep us from going under, keep us from wasting away, and keep us from starving spiritually.

Read the Word. Think about the Word. Believe the Word. Consume the Word. Daily. Any and every way you can. As much as you can with mindfulness. Don’t rush it. Don’t breeze through. Think it through. Meditate it through. Ask Holy Spirit about it as you read. Have faith in the Word. Trust it as true. As written. Truth. Period. Don’t look back. Walk forward in belief, faith, and the Word. It is a process that takes time, but it will be time well spent. The best time. Trust me. And Him.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Acts 21:1-13

Paul was warned not to go to Jerusalem. By believers who saw it in the Spirit. By a prophet who demonstrated it. But Paul went anyway. They wept. They begged. But Paul went anyway. He went because Jesus loved him. He went because the Lord God the Father loved him. He went wrapped in the love of the Holy Spirit. How? Because Paul knew he was loved. Paul said he was ready not only to be bound, but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus (vs 13). You don’t get that willingness to die or be bound unless you know you’re loved. When you know you’re loved by someone who loves you. It makes every sacrifice worth it. Every act of obedience is a language of love. Our to Him and His to us (John 14:15-31). If we love Him, we keep His commandments. We follow His way. We let Him in.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.