Fear No Fear

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

And as for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were not thoroughly washed clean with water, and you were not thoroughly rubbed with salt, and you were not carefully wrapped in strips of cloth. No eye took pity on you to do to you one of these things to show compassion for you, and you were thrown into the open field in their despising of you on the day you were born.

Ezekiel 16:4-5

It’s too easy to forget where you started. We are such a forward moving species that we tend not to look back. Or when we do, we gloss over the realities. We look at the things we had a hand in and say that WE did it. You hear the myth of the self-made-man all the time, but when you look at their lives it wasn’t THEM that did it. Not all of it. Yes, they applied themselves. Yes, they worked hard. Yes, they achieved and should be congratulated for it. But you can also clearly see the hand of Adonai providing the opportunities they needed to succeed. Esther was in the same boat. She was waffling when she had to make a serious decision. Mordecai reminded her of where she came from. Job’s wife urged him to forget where he came from and strike out at God for it. Saul’s daughter Michal forgot where she and her father came from and got uppity about it. We ALL started in the same boat and the boat SUCKED. We need to NEVER forget that. If we don’t, we will ALWAYS have a tender heart toward Adonai, the One who took us out of the boat and planted us in good soil.

Adonai saved us. There’s no other way to look at it. I’m not even talking about ‘salvation’. He literally has picked up each and every human being out of the mud and filth they were in because of Sin. Because of the Fall. This is the starting point we all share. He found us. He sought us out and FOUND us (Matthew 13:44). He did NOT leave us how He found us. He did NOT abandon us. He did EVERYTHING He could (and it was a LOT) to help us thrive and grow and be productive. He did it because He LOVES us, NOT because of anything we did or we are worth in and of ourselves (Romans 5:8). Our nature was broken. We had no value, but HE valued us and saved us. He made us – each and every one of us – who we really are (not what we think our circumstances make us). And then He made a Way for us to become what HE sees when He looks at us. To become what HE says we can be. Adonai did all this from love. Adonai enabled it. Him. Not us.

This is why it is SO FOOLISH for us to look at non-believers judgmentally. The filth sticking to them may be different from the filth sticking to you, but it is still filth. Covered with cow manure or chicken manure or pig manure is still being covered with manure. ALL personal sins are sinful (James 2:10) – they ALL separate us from Adonai (Romans 3:23). Unless we accept His salvation in and through Jesus that paid for Sin, we remain separate from Him. All of us. Whether we are still in the muck and mire or whether we are picked up and planted by Him. We are the SAME. Our RESPONSE to Him is what makes us different. That isn’t an opportunity for judgmental thinking. That’s an opportunity to spread the message of GRACE and MERCY: ‘We were the SAME, but LOOK at what ADONAI has done. If He did it for me, He can do it for YOU.’ We should not be silent about the great things He has done and made available to ALL of us. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us in order that, denying impiety and worldly desires, we may live self-controlled and righteously and godly in the present age, looking forward to the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, in order that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).

We need to keep front and center the memory of what He brought us out from. It helps with all our interactions with believers AND unbelievers. It helps us maintain Adonai in His proper place. In Ezekiel, Adonai explains that He took His people out of Egypt, but they didn’t leave it behind. They took the idols with them (in actual fact and in their hearts). He told them to get rid of the things they loved but He did not (Ezekiel 20:7). ALL their troubles and issues came upon them because they didn’t do that. That is a GREAT LESSON for all of us. It isn’t about what WE love, like, enjoy, or find to be good. It is about what ADONAI loves, likes, enjoys, and says is good. OUR opinion is NOT a factor – something our flesh refuses to believe (Galatians 5:17). It is a battlefield of the mind where we must submit to His point of view to be victorious. But WE are just filthy in a field on our own. We NEED Jesus to do it.

Ruach HaKodesh is here to remind us of both sides of that coin. First: we were NOTHING and FILTHY and ABANDONED when He found us (John 15:5). Second: Jesus paid for us so that in Him we can overcome (John 16:33). If we lose sight of that, it is easy to think WE did it. That WE accomplished the things. That WE improved ourselves. That Adonai sees us as righteous because of OUR efforts, OUR standing, and OUR performance. This is a LIE. We ONLY have ANYTHING of worth (including ourselves) because of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). Ruach HaKodesh reminds us of this because when we have the knowledge of it, we can engage and walk in it.

We seek Him, and He is found (Matthew 7:7). We KNOW the love He has for us, and He is able to work in and through us for His glory (Ephesians 3:14-21). We are to REMEMBER Him because remembrance helps us keep our eyes on Him and to put Him in the place of value that He deserves to be in. When we remember what He has done, we have a thankful heart toward Him. Which blesses Him. And in blessing Him, WE get blessed.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Ephesians 1:4

“just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love,” Before we existed, Adonai chose humanity to be His image. To be His likeness. To be holy and blameless before Him in love: His for us and ours for Him. Adam was created exactly this way. Eve was also created exactly this way. But then we ruined it. They rebelled and despised what Adonai had done for them. As their children, we inherited that. But we also inherited the promise of it being fixed. Right from the beginning Adonai prophesied a helper, a Saviour, One who would crush the devil and return us – every single one of us – to what He ordained us to be. Every single human who has ever existed was chosen to be in Jesus. We were chosen before Creation. Jesus spiritually offered Himself as the sacrifice before Creation (Revelation 13:8). It was all in place before ANYTHING was created (Isaiah 46:10). He left NOTHING to chance. He made it ALL possible. All WE need to do is choose to accept it. All WE need to do is humbly submit to Him. The choice is OURS. He has done ALL the heavy lifting. We don’t need to ACCOMPLISH anything. 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