Fear No Fear

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

But every man will sit under his vine and under his fig tree. No one will make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of Armies has spoken. Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.
Micah 4:4 (emphasis added)

Who doesn’t like a good sitting down? A chance to lie down and do a little of nothing. To relax. To rest. It’s the motivator for so much work in the world. An ocean of beer has been sold on the idea that after a long day at work you deserve to have one. Market size of the tourism sector worldwide is about two trillion dollars. Because we deserve rest. There are even chocolate bars that sell on the premise that they are a short break from life and you deserve that. Rest was built into the human species by the Lord: “God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done” (Genesis 2:3).

We have a need for rest. A good night’s sleep. Pauses amid our workday. On the sabbath or on Sunday, whichever day you utilise, we tend to think of things as a chore. Needing to ‘get through’ church because it is God’s day. Like it is in the way of our relaxation. But the sabbath was put in place to ensure that we had a rest from toil. Jesus said in Mark 2:27 “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Rest is important and we start to break down if we don’t get it. The medical field promotes rest for better mental health, increased concentration and memory, a healthier immune system, reduced stress, improved mood and even a better metabolism. Rest is important.

The question quickly becomes what IS rest and how do we get it? Rest is more than unplugging from the world. Rest is more than just not working. Rest is more than doing simple things we enjoy. Rest is a renewal. It is a time that the body and the mind are not actively working to achieve a goal. You’re not expending energy working out problems, moving the body to accomplish work tasks. There isn’t effort being spent to manage the world and bring it from chaos into order. All that is being done is repair and maintaining equilibrium. A calming down. A taking our engines offline from even idling. We aren’t doing. We are being. That is a difficult thing to achieve in this world.

This world is decaying. It is corrupted and is corrupting at a steady rate. It takes effort to hold that back. It is pretty much what humanity has been doing for thousands of years. Striving to survive and hold back the chaos. To keep the world from falling apart long enough for us to enjoy it — or at least not have to fight to keep a piece of it. It can be hard to take a break from that without feeling that it is all going to come crashing down. We tend to try and stay in a catlike state of readiness to protect us and those around us from the crisis that constantly crop up. Take the Millennial generation. I’ve heard it said that they won’t experience a mid-life crisis because there hasn’t been a time that they haven’t been dealing with a crisis. Two recessions, wars, threats of wars, wage issues, supply issues, it goes on and on. They don’t have careers, just jobs to pay the bills and they’ll switch it up as often as they need to stay ahead of the bills. They’re not doing long-term saving, but often still living from paycheque to paycheque. They won’t experience that pause from decades of work and frugality to just ‘snap’ and have a period of catch-up on rest craziness before hunkering down for the second half before retirement. Instead, Millennials seem to be heading toward total burnout and collapse with no ability to classically retire in sight. It is the state the world is embracing more and more.

We need rest. We don’t often have the opportunity for it. Worldly rest is just consumerism under another name. The pipe dream of earning the golden years of rest are a paper tiger always exposed to open flame. Is there a solution? Yes. In the hands of the one who built rest into us. The Lord has rest for us. Exodus 33:14 “He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”” That’s a great start. Too Old Testamenty for you? Mark 11:28 “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus is the same yesterday as He is today as He will be tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). The Lord is all about giving us rest. But if you look around those verses, you’ll find that in context they are not stand alone. They are not bold and singular claims. There is another side to rest.

In Matthew, Jesus is talking about us being yoked to Him. Being obedient and following in the statutes and commands of the Lord. In Exodus it is all about the Lord going up with an obedient people (or considering not going with a stiff-necked, disobedient people) into the promised land. The rest is more than conditional. It is situational. If you are situated correctly, you will have it. If we are not set and established at this determined spot, we will not have rest. What is the spot? In the Will of the Lord. In the place of obedience. At the altar of submission and worship. The Lord of Armies has spoken on our behalf. He will send His angels to protect us and guard us. To keep all from disturbing our rest. To keep us so secure that there will be no opportunity much less a desire to fear. That is some rest. That is the rest that Jesus had in the bottom of the boat in the storm (Matthew 8:23-27). That is the rest of the believer. Total peace amidst whatever is happening around us. THAT is prosperity.

To be eligible, we need to “walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever” (Micah 4:4). There is no middle ground. This is serious. This is so serious that to protect the people from straying, those who enticed the Israelites to follow other gods were put to death (Deuteronomy 13). It is evil to avoid the Lord. It is what caused the downfall of humanity. What exposed us to the evil intent. It is the birthplace of all sin. Stage 4 terminal cancer is an ice cream on a perfect summer day compared to this. People often cite the books of the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and Joshua as bloodthirsty books of conquest. As the blueprint that all other (predominately white) empire-making people followed when they went out to enslave the world through colonisation. But these actions that were decreed were not a matter of violence or conquest. It was protection and nurturing.

Just like we have brutal treatments for cancer, the Lord had to get into their heads the importance of staying far from this evil. It was so important, threads of it are found in every major (and most minor) Jewish traditions that Moses established. Take the hunt for leaven, for example. Leaven (yeast) was used as a picture for sin. Only a little is needed to contaminate a whole batch. So for Passover (and this is a simplification), they had to get rid of it. For about ten days or so (I can’t remember exactly) they couldn’t have any leaven in any area they owned. That means no breadcrumbs in your keyboard, no yeast dust in your cupboard, no bread in the freezer. Nothing. Not even other products that contained yeast. It didn’t matter if you weren’t done with it. It didn’t matter if it had sentimental value. At Passover, once a year, you got rid of it. Gone from your life permanently. It was a symbol of how harsh you needed to be to root sinful behaviour out. Or things that caused you to sin. Anything that promoted anything that put anything in place of God in your heart and mind. To do so is to invite destruction because you are leaving the protection of the Lord God Almighty and stepping out into the open and exposing yourself to the elements of this world and the effects of the curse.

If we serve the Lord and we keep Him first and foremost, then we will be obedient. Why? Because it is hard to truly love someone and disobey them. Kids do it all the time, you say. Not really. The kids aren’t loving their parents all the time. They love their parents, but they aren’t loving them. When you are actively loving someone, you are thinking of them. You want to bring a smile to their face. You want to mould your behaviour to match the desires of your beloved. Ask any couple who are madly in love and actively wooing each other. When you pass that phase, you love them, but they aren’t on your mind all the time. When that is true, you don’t try and mould yourself to their desires. You’re you and they’re them and you love each other. For kids, that means that they love their parents but the rules their parents set are a different thing. They don’t see them as indivisible. They see them as separate things. Rules go with punishments, love goes with parents. Not a big deal if you break a rule, only a big deal if you’re found out. The rule has nothing to do with the parents or the love.

That’s where the Pharisees and Sadducees were at. They were following rules in order not to endure punishment, but they had divorced the rules from the love of Yahweh God. The rules were just rules attached to punishment. They had long ceased to be rules which were mere guidelines to show how to walk in the Ways of the Lord and stay within the framework of Righteousness. Jesus fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17-20). He took it from rules to a matter of the heart. That it was more than behaviour, but a lifestyle of thought. It was no longer about not sleeping with your neighbour’s spouse, but seeing them as a human only with no lust or desire attached to that thought. As a valuable member of the community, fellow brother or sister in the Lord, and not anything else. To be pure in our thinking, not to say we are pure, but because when our focus is on the Lord and loving the Lord there is no room for anything else.

To love the Lord our God with all our heart, and all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our all. To view everything through the eyeglasses of the empty tomb. To put to death self and embrace the Lord. To leave aside our ‘I know best’ and submit to His wisdom. To walk in His ways. To let the perfect Lord of Creation love on us and to love Him unconditionally in return. He is unique. He is God. And He loves you. If we abide in Jesus and let Him lead us, we will love on Him today and every day as if we are wooing Him and He is wooing us. Love Him as a verb. An action. Don’t lose sight of that. Don’t step out of that. Just abide, dude. Abide. It is where your peace will always be.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 2 Thessalonians 3:16

It’s easy to forget the still small voice. It’s easy to focus on the glory coming down and floating through a place. It’s easy to focus on deliverance and rejoice as the demonic is loosed from someone’s life. It’s easy to focus on healing and seeing the blind gain sight and the lame walk. It’s easy to sit back and soak in the sound of a hundred angel’s wings. It’s easy to see it — or at least the effects of it — all around us. But those aren’t the thing. Those are by-products of the thing. Lose sight of the thing and they become shows, shams, and empty events of participation. It doesn’t mean the Lord won’t honour the faith of the faithful and still show up, but if we don’t have the thing, it won’t benefit us. The thing is a reverence for the still, small voice. You can’t hear it if you’re not resting in the Lord. You can’t hear it if you’re not full of worship and praise. You can’t hear it if you’re not focused on the Word. You can’t hear it if you’re full of yourself. You can’t hear it if you’re not reverent and broken before the Lord. But when you are striving to put Him first. To listen for His voice. To read His word. To want His approval in all things, then it will happen. Then you’ll hear it. Whispers into your heart. He is always speaking to us because He loves us. He never, ever, ever stops. But we can’t hear it unless we tune out Self and tune in Jesus. If we don’t stop listening to the evil intent, if we don’t stop actively dwelling on committing sin, if we don’t stop US. We need to be listening. Striving to listen no matter where we are at — good, bad, saved, free or jailed, repentant, church going, whatever. Wherever you are at. God loves us. God wants us to know it. If you listen, you’ll hear Him saying it. It’s whispered on the breath of His peace that He is trying to blow over you. Put down the umbrella and receive it.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.