Fear No Fear

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

When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with injustice. A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:7-9 (emphasis added)

This is a time of too much and not enough. There is too much in the hands of too few. There is too little in the hands of too many. Everyone in each group should resent and attack the members of the other group. And anyone caught in the middle should be hated by both groups. This is the overwhelming message that I see out there. Judgment. Bitterness. People horrified by all the things that other people are doing. Supply chain issues. Price gouging. Hoarding. But this is not the way of the Kingdom. This is not loving one another. Our verses today really speak to the situation in which the world finds itself and will continue to find itself (Circumstances will take a turn for the dramatically impactful. I cheated. I peeked at Revelation).

The Lord calls us to love. Not in a passionate or even necessarily an emotional way. How do we love one another? By valuing them. By treating them as if they had worth. Making sure we’re not cheating them. Making sure that they have enough. Checking in on one another. Being open to altering our own behaviour instead of always being concerned about what the others are doing. Being helpful. Being polite. These are all ways in which we love. How about interest-free loans when you lend to a friend? Even better, don’t look for the money back. Just bless them. Take care of those who can’t help themselves, in the way they need not the way you think they need or the way that is easiest for you. This is loving our neighbours. This is what we are called to walk out.

When we love the Lord — not in concept, but really love Him — we seek to do what He says is important. We will find ourselves obeying His commands and following His statutes because they are His moral landscape. We want to be with Him and fellowship with Him and that is almost impossible when we are morally separate. We need to stay in Jesus. We need to focus on Him. It is through Him and Him alone that we can get into the throne room of the Father. We need to do that because the Father is who we are to pray to. Our father in heaven, remember? (Matthew 6:9). Nothing that isn’t completely righteous can stand before the Father. Only in Jesus can we do it. We can’t be righteous on our own (2 Corinthians 5:21). We need Him. In Him and by Him and through Him we can be righteous and we can walk in His ways. But only with and by Jesus (John 15:1-7).

When we are operating in faith, using it to abide in Jesus and study the Word, we please the Lord (Hebrews 11:6). When we please the Lord, the Lord can protect us. Because it is when we are pleasing Him by faith that our actions keep us under the blessing. Any and everywhere around the Lord there is blessing. In His yard, it never stops falling. But we need to stay there. Focus on Him. Thankfully, when we miss it or step away He is there to help us in our honest repentance to come back and dwell once more under His blessing (1 John 1:9). His blessing is more than just spiritual health, financial burdens eased, things working out, or peace in our hearts. His blessing impacts the world around us. When our ways please the Father, He makes our enemies peaceful toward us. He soothes ruffled feathers, speaks to hearts on both sides, and enables solutions to fall into place. He appeases situations. He turns enemies to friends — or better, helps us seed faith in them so that it can sprout and help them become believers. Where the Lord moves, there is peace.

You may say, but what about the grocery stores? The artificial price inflation just because they can. The people are going to grab everything and leave nothing for the rest of us. Well, that’s greed and fear in action. Love of money can blind people to reality. In corporations it can be even worse because they are beholden to shareholders. Unless they are a Plan ‘B’ corporation they have zero choice but to placate investors, and even Plan ‘B’ companies have obligations. The corporate world runs on profit. They are obligated to provide a profit that is greater than the profits they had before. There must be growth. CEOs can lose their jobs. Boards can be fired. Employees sacked. If you aren’t making a profit, you are toast.

This means that from their point of view any and everything is on the table as a method of profit making. And when there is an opportunity to take advantage of either the market OR the turmoil in the world — eggs and fuel, we’re looking at you — they take it. The happier their investors, the more secure their jobs. And also, they too would like to make insane amounts of money. We really hold up those billion and trillion making people and companies as heroes. As goals. As if THIS was the western dream. When in reality, the idea that took hold in the west was success, not riches.

Success can be measured in a multitude of ways. But way, way, WAY back in the day most businessmen would tell you that they weren’t in business to make a profit for profit’s sake (although they all were very aware of profit). They had seen a need in the community/world and sought to address it. In addressing it, they got to make money and grow — both personally and professionally. That golden ideal is for the most part gone. Now money and margins rule the roost. It has gotten to the point that when you find someone not doing that, it is shocking. I know of a CEO of one large company who tends to be less profit-centric than most. He has a lot of money. The company makes a lot of money. But his attitude is one of this: if I make 10 million a year, do I really need to gouge the market so I can make 20? Isn’t 10 enough? That’s a rare attitude. Looking at your more than you need and being satisfied.

As believers, we are not to love money. We are to love God. We’re allowed to like money. We should be aware of it and be good stewards of it. But money in the life of a believer — any believer — is a tool for the blessing of others more than it is a tool to provide comfort. Does this mean that Christians who have a lot of money are doing wrong? No. I don’t care how you feel about them personally, but you will find that there are Christian business people, leaders, and ministers who have a LOT of money and constantly use it to bless those around them. By being enormous tippers. By supporting charity. By supporting ministries (not just their own but others). By making products available for reasonable prices. By taking care of their communities and investing in them. Money isn’t evil. Possessions aren’t evil. But loving them is.

Yahweh God is He Who Sustains. He Who Provides. He has promised to meet our needs again and again (Philippians 4:19, 1 Peter 5:7, and Matthew 6:26-34). He values us. He knows what we need. He knows what will not cause us to stumble (James 4:1-4). But where is your heart? Is it on possessions? Is it on your bank account? I’m not talking about concern for ends meeting or wondering how you are going to provide for your kids. I’m not talking about worry. I’m talking about lust for these things. Wanting them more than you want to spend time with the Lord. Wanting them more than you want to seek God. What is in your heart that interferes with your walk with the Lord? What keeps you from reading the Word? Praying? Praising? Going to church and not clock-watching? That’s an idol and it is wrong, wrong, wrong. And hey, we all struggle to keep priorities.

As long as your reverence for the Lord is subordinate to the reliance you place on the world around you, there is a fundamental wrongness in your outlook. Money will not save you. Stocks will not save you. Fancy alcohol in your basement won’t save you. Investments won’t save you. Food on your shelves and toilet paper in your closet won’t save you. All of that is good, but it can all disappear. Then where will you be? Worldly security is only as reliable as the world. Have you paid attention to anything happening in it over the last six thousand years? There is not much that is reliable. Don’t take our technological terrors and triumphs and think the world is a different place now. It’s just as unreliable, it’s just fancier.

Take Psalm 91 and meditate on it. Read it line by line. Change it into a first-person prayer. Focus on it. Dwell on it. Think about what it means. This is a roadmap for success. Not because there are hidden numerical mysteries that unlock your growth potential. Because it states in no uncertain terms that if you are relying on the Lord God Almighty first and foremost, nothing will be an issue. Circumstances will exist, but they will not stop you. Troubles will surround, but it will be like they’re happening in a movie to other people. You cannot be touched in your deepest places. Imagine not being worried. Not about prices. Not about availability of funds. Not about kids. Not about work. Not about anything. Not denying the existence of those things, but realising that they cannot affect you. Everything will turn out for the Lord’s glory. We are not promised smooth sailing. We are not promised no problems. But we are promised no cares or worry if we give them to the Lord (Psalm 55:2). We are promised that our needs will be met (Psalm 37:25). He is the Lord Who Sustains and the God of More Than Enough. Never forget that.

If we focus our thinking on the Lord and how He does things, it can dramatically alter our world. But we need to plan in our heart to walk in His ways. We need to seek Him for guidance. As we do, the Lord will prepare our steps. As we grow, He will come and grant us assistance. But are you listening? Are you? The Lord is speaking to His children right now. He is telling us that things are coming. The world isn’t ready for them. The world won’t handle them well. The world is going to lose their minds. But we won’t if we listen.

The Lord is granting us assistance. Each and every one of us. He is meeting us where we are and telling us what we need to do. How we need to prepare. Not hoard resources others are going to need. Not to panic and fear. But to do what He says, when He says, and trust that He has the answer for us. Trust that He knows what He is doing. If we seek him and walk in His ways as good children, we will be always placing ourselves in the spot where He is able to move for us. If we listen and give Him permission to act in our lives (freewill and dominion, remember?), He will. The ones who seek to purify themselves in Christ Jesus. The ones who want to continue on our journey of sanctification into being more like Jesus. The ones who are praising and loving the Lord first and foremost. These precious children will be shepherded and cared for. In Genesis 48:15 Jacob acknowledges that Yahweh God shepherded him all his life. He didn’t have a life free from trouble. But he had a life that was directed by the Lord and gave him so much to be thankful for. When trouble came, he was rescued. Don’t you want to be able to say that?

More than ever, as time marches on we need to rely on the Lord. He is the one who knows. He is the one who plans. He is the one who considers everyone equally and wants each and every one in His kingdom. There will be disasters. There will be economic collapses. There will be strife and turmoil and horrors. But you can be free. Content. Whole, healthy, warm, and taken care of. You don’t need to rely on the world’s systems and advice. You have the Lord. You have the Creator of the universe. You have He Who Sustains. Rely on Him. Seek Him. Let your life be changed. Let peace flow in your heart. Stand on The Rock. It’s the only place to be.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 1 Kings 14:7-8

God loves us so much when we repent He forgets our sins. Was King David a perfect individual all of his life? No. No, he was not. But he loved the Lord. The Lord loves us like He loved David. But is He saying the same thing? Is He saying we have pleased Him? Is He happy with how we have conducted our lives? Don’t think God ignored David’s wrongdoing. 1 Kings 15:5 says “because David did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, and didn’t turn away from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” But God isn’t holding it against David. Why? David repented. David always acknowledged His wrongs and made them right. There was nothing in his life as recorded in scripture where he did anything else. And that seeking of the Lord out of love, is why David is called the man after God’s own heart. That is why David is held up as a model for other kings (and by extension all believers) to follow. Not for his missteps, but for his ever-eager readiness to be corrected and be right before the Lord. As you read the psalms he wrote, think about his heart. Think about how he never missed an opportunity to praise the Lord or seek the Lord. Think about his attitude of brokenness before God. David was humble, realistic, and aware of his need for God. God responded. God will respond to you too. Seek Him first, and all the rest of everything will follow. Security, peace, and a good report from His lips. He diligently sought you out. Diligently seek Him in return. He will take care of you. He loves His children so much. Aren’t you glad for the opportunity to be one?

Lord, touch our hearts as we seek to touch Yours. Guide us in the way we should go and help us determine not to depart from it. Thank You for Your mercy and provision. Our hearts are open, our ears are open, we praise You, Father, and ask You to come and move. Use us and move us. Amen.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.