Fear No Fear

“For if these things reside in you and abound, they ensure that you will neither be useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8, MEV). I don’t Jesus was a natural early riser. I think Jesus was really fond of extended lie-ins. But He didn’t have many of them. Jesus chose to put down His flesh (Galatians 5:24) and sacrificed sleep in favour of worship, praise, and prayer to His Father (Hebrews 13:15). Jesus ALWAYS went to synagogue on Saturday (Luke 4:16). Jesus OFTEN prayed well into the night (Luke 6:12). These things are not spoken of as unusual for Him, but examples of when He did them. Jesus SACRIFICED His fleshly wants on a daily basis and did ONLY what He was told to or shown to. The only way for Him to be shown or be told what to do, was to stay in fellowship with the Father. To keep His eyes on Adonai. When WE do as HE did (John 14:12; Ephesians 2:10; Proverbs 16:9), we will have the kind of guidance He did. If we seek God FIRST, the rest becomes ours to engage as well because we will be focused on His will. Doing it His way. In His timing. How He says and where He says to do it. When we sacrifice what WE think is best and embrace what HE thinks is best, our lives transform into something spectacular. Into something ABUNDANT (John 10:10). He doesn’t KEEP us from these wonderful things. He PRESERVES them FOR us. He wants us to have them. To have spirits so full of Him that it overflows into all the other areas of our lives and our thinking (3 John 2). He is SO GENEROUS in His love. That generosity ensures that when we are cooperating WITH Him, we won’t be unfruitful. We won’t be unproductive. We won’t be useless. We’ll be productive, producing, useful blessings to all around us – just as we’re called to be (Luke 6:38).