Fear No Fear

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

to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his precepts,

Psalm 103:18

Yesterday we spoke of the loyal love of Adonai and the righteousness He shows to the children of the children of those who love Him. Today continues that idea and reveals a WONDERFUL detail about the character of Adonai. He is a covenant keeping Elohim. Once He makes a covenant, He KEEPS it. There are around eight THOUSAND promises in the Word. He hasn’t forgotten a SINGLE one. Our ability to walk in His Way is resolved in covenant with Him. Or more accurately, we have been given entrance into the covenant that Jesus struck with the Father and the Father struck with Jesus, His Son. Adonai made several covenants with humanity, but we failed to keep them perfectly. They were all shadows of THE covenant, HIS covenant, which is kept perfectly between Jesus and His Father. We get access. We get the privilege of standing in Him. And in that standing, we gain the ability to remember to do his precepts. We gain the ability to accomplish. We gain the ability to be faithful. We gain the ability to walk where He says walk. It should be a foundational shout of gratitude in each of our hearts.

The BLESSING comes through that covenant. Protection from POVERTY (in ALL its forms) comes through that covenant. The fullness of the GOODNESS of Adonai becomes visible and experiential through that covenant. It is now ALL about that covenant. The NEW covenant with BETTER promises and a BETTER foundation. “Look, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day of my grasping them by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them,” declares Yahweh” (Jeremiah 31:31-32). “But now he has attained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). We are living in the reality of that covenant now. Jesus made the covenant and we are not only allowed, but encouraged to walk in it. But a covenant must be KEPT. It cannot only be experienced.

The great benefit of the new covenant that MAKES it better is that JESUS takes care of the KEEPING. JESUS kept it so that we don’t have to. What WE have to do is stay in Jesus. If Jesus is the keeper of the covenant, and the benefits of covenant are only available to those who keep it, then we need to stay in Jesus to stay in covenant. That would be depressing IF Adonai hadn’t made the Way FOR US. He gives us the tools. He gives us the strategy. He gives us the pattern to follow. He guides us, leads us, teaches us, and corrects us. He empowers us with authority and dominion. He enables us to engage HIS character and HIS characteristics. He gives us His words to put in our mouths. He really and truly makes it all available and plain for us. It is too simple to get wrong without someone intentionally leading us astray. He has done it all so that all we need to do is remain in Him (John 15:5).

We should be VERY thankful for that. It’s wonderful. It’s merciful. It shows us SO MUCH Grace. We should all have hearts FULL of gratitude for what Jesus has done. But how to we DO it? How do we stay in Him? Through remembrance. We have to consistently REMEMBER what He has done and what He makes available to us. We have to consistently remember our place in this covenantial arrangement. If we don’t, we run the risk or being sidetracked. Of being mistaken. Or worse, of thinking it is OUR efforts or OUR merit that gets us into a relationship with Adonai. It doesn’t. WE aren’t worthy of it. We ONLY get to step into this covenant of grace through TRUST IN JESUS. “Therefore, because we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).

We maintain remembrance of these things because Ruach HaKodesh REMINDS us of them (John 14:26). It is through HIS ministry that they prey on our minds so often. His reminders remind us to be so VERY thankful to Adonai. His reminders help frame our gratitude to the One who deserves it. Reminding us of the great steps Adonai took when He didn’t have to. He could have waited a few years and seen us all die out. Instead, He took steps to be alongside us. To tabernacle among us. To make the Way open to us so that we could come back. Come back to where we belonged. To REMEMBER what it is we are and who it is we are in the image and likeness of. I am grateful for every reminder – although my flesh is not always happy with the timing. I am grateful for every correction – although my flesh is never happy being corrected. I am grateful that I will NOT forget. That I WILL remember what Adonai has laid down for me and I WILL walk in it. I know that Ruach HaKodesh reminds you of the same. I hope you will be just as grateful and pray that you will choose to put your feet squarely in the centre of His Way.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Malachi 3:16

“Then those who revered Yahweh spoke with one another. And Yahweh listened attentively and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written before him of those who revere Yahweh and ponder his name.” Adonai doesn’t need to write things down to remember them. Yet He has a book of remembrance where He has written a record of everyone who reveres Him and meditates about Him. He has written our very names on the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16). Adonai has no need of these memory aids, but He uses them. Not to remember, but to CHERISH. He writes them in order to show US. So that when we stand before Him, He can show us each and every time that He noticed us. That He took JOY in us. Every time we pleased Him with our trust (Hebrews 11:6). Adonai LIKES to remember us, and He knows that us remembering Him is even more important. That’s one of the reasons we were given Ruach HaKodesh. To teach us the methods Adonai uses to cherish us in order that we learn to cherish Him. So we won’t lose out on the benefits. So that WE won’t stop pondering Him. So that the BLESSING will be ever present in our lives. 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