Fear No Fear

“Because of the fact that you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, then you shall serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you under conditions of famine, in thirst, in nakedness, and in a lack of everything; and he shall place a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48, LEB). I am SO THANKFUL we are not under the Covenant of Judgment (Galatians 3:13), but under the Covenant of Grace where we obey because we love Him and seek His face (1 John 2:3-6). Where we are corrected (sometimes sternly) by a Loving Father, not judged for our performance. Yet, God is consistent and still wants the same things for us. The Lord desires a light yoke on us to guide, lead, and correct our steps (Matthew 11:28). He wants us to not hunger or thirst (John 6:35; 7:37). He wants us clothed (Genesis 3:21; Matthew 6:28-30). He wants us joyful and our hearts full of gladness, not because we do or don’t have abundance in physical things, but because we have abundance in HIS things – which enables us to handle having physical things (3 John 2; Matthew 6:33; Ephesians 1:3). We ONLY get those things by following His instructions. We are in love with Jesus, so we WANT to obey. It brings us JOY to obey Him because He takes JOY in us (Nehemiah 8:10). We obey out of gladness and love (John 14:15). It creates in us a desire to serve Him, which enables Him to bless us with all the abundant blessings that He wants to – because we are with Him in His place of blessing. He’s arranged everything so that it is simple to understand and simple to do. All we need to do is align with Him and stick to Him like a root digging deep into soil (John 15:5). He is so good to us it’s HARD not to be thankful and praisey!