Fear No Fear

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

I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The LORD’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh taste and see that the LORD is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 34:4-8 (emphasis added)

I know that I’ve said it before. And I know that I am going to end up saying it again, but I’ll do it anyway. This is a scripture written for today. Things are speeding up. Things are getting crazy. I don’t like to quote the headlines because I don’t like to date the messages. Sometimes little hints about what is happening creeps in. Yet there are always things I could mention and they’ll either be current or worse than they are right now. Not because the Lord isn’t stopping it, isn’t wanting to, or is teaching us something. No, it is just unfolding as it was going to. Jesus warned us that when the end got near it would be as in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39). Yes, they were very far below us technologically. Yes, we know so much more than they did. Yes, we are ‘advanced’. But it was so bad and so demonic, the Lord destroyed it all.

Have you looked at the world lately? Are there natural disasters? Flooding rivers, ruined cities, and buildings collapsing? Are politicians misbehaving? Scandals, cover ups, and tax evasion. Are banks in trouble? Stock Market fluctuating? Civil rights under fire? Morality wars? Entitlement? Housing crisis? Grocery and gas bills rising? Homelessness? It’s all going on and getting worse every decade I’m alive. And I’m sure it was going on before I got here and will be going on for some time to come. The world is a stone that is rolling down a slope to the bottom, it’s rolling well, and there is no moss growing on it.

You would think that those who believe would act a certain way in this environment. I hear them – acquaintances or people I come across on social media. Asking for prayer. Talking about the hope God will do something. There’s a flavour of depression or desperation on them. Sometimes both. I will agree to pray for someone or a situation, but I won’t agree with most of them. I don’t want to be yoked to prayers of desperation. I’ve prayed them. I’ve shouted and flat out begged. Never again. It did NO GOOD. Not because of God, but because I had NO FAITH for it. I was begging. God doesn’t hear begging. He hears faith. Sound unfair? It isn’t.

God is a God of Grace. Full of mercy. He doesn’t sit back and wait for us to figure it out. Thank you, Father, for that. He’d still be waiting on me. He doesn’t do that. He uses Grace and grants us the faith to believe (Philippians 1:29). Peter talks about it in 1 Peter 1:1. “to those who had obtained a like precious faith with us.” Obtained a precious faith. He called us from before time and creation (Ephesians 1:4). He called so hard because He doesn’t want anyone to perish. He wants everyone – every single person – to come to redemption (2 Peter 3:9). He wasn’t waiting around for people to come to their senses back in Noah’s day (2 Peter 2:5). He isn’t waiting around today.

Ever been in a noisy room? Did you hear your name called? That person across the room trying to get your attention? Did it take once? Twice? More? The Lord called us a long, long time ago. That call existed before we were born. It was still echoing when we got born. It echoes today. It will continue to echo until you answer. Your name is a word, yes? God called you by speaking it. Isaiah 49:16 tells us God inscribes us on the palms of His hands. We have become words in the mouth and on the hands of the Lord God Almighty. Jeremiah 1:12 tells us that the Lord watches over His word to perform it. To bring it to pass. No matter how much we end up wanting Him, He wants us more. And not just names in a bag. Not just antlers to hang on the wall.

The Lord wants fellowship with us. It’s why we get corrected. It’s why it is important to read the Word and not shy away from the commands we find there. It doesn’t matter if you agree or not. It doesn’t matter if you feel it or not. If the Lord says it is wrong, it is wrong. We all – myself included – must practise righteousness. Practice. Get to the point where we aren’t giving excuses. Where we aren’t trying to justify things. Because what we think, what we feel, and what we ‘know’ doesn’t matter a whole lot. In fact, all of that is worth absolutely nothing. It is what the Lord says that has value. Jesus is in everything (Colossians 3:11). Who is this Jesus? “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).

When we call out to Him, we aren’t cutting new territory. We aren’t doing anything unexpected. We don’t take Him by surprise. He’s been waiting for us to turn our head, lock eyes, and answer. When we seek Him, He answers us. Sinner and saint. Raised in a church, raised in a barn, or raised on the street. He answers us. Not smarmily. Not ‘Oh… YOU. What do YOU want?’ No, what is the first thing He does according to today’s verse? Delivered us from all our fears. The first thing He does is kick fear out. To lift us up out of the claws of the beast trying to claw us back down. We don’t need to beg! We don’t need to grovel! We’re to be BOLD going to the Throne (Hebrews 10:35-36). Full of praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4). If for NO OTHER REASON than to thank Him for saving you. But we can go there and talk to the Father. Talk to the Son. We can always talk to Him. No matter where we are, we are less than a step from the Courts of Heaven.

Doesn’t this give you confidence? Doesn’t it breed reliance in you? The more you hear it, the more it should. Problems come up and we pray. Boy do we pray. Bad diagnosis. Pipes bursting. No money for bills. Kids need to be fed. Baby needs changing. Vehicle needs gas. Oh how we pray. But if there isn’t any confidence in it, there isn’t any faith in it. We might as well be talking to a wall. But if there is even a tiny bit of faith. A teensy, tiny little bit, He’ll hear that (Matthew 17:20-21). It makes SUCH a difference. But do we DO it? You know how many times a problem has come up and sooner or later someone else or myself will say ‘Did you pray about it?’ and there will be a pause. ‘uhh…. no.’ How can we get an answer if we don’t ask? I had to claw my way out of the gutter, busted seven humps getting this business up and running, and I am a self-made individual. Did you ask Him for help? I guarantee He helped you, but how different it could have been.

When will we learn to turn to the Lord for everything and anything. Parking spot? Pray. Looking for your keys? Pray. Not sure if you turned the stove on, turned out the lights, locked the fence, shut the gas cap? Pray! Prayer does not have to be a long liturgical affair. We’re told to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17). That’s a running commentary of us talking, us praising, and us listening – never forget that last bit. I’ve prayed and missed it. Because I didn’t listen. I just talked and talked and talked and talked. It’s worth it to listen. That’s the best part. The Lord. God Almighty Himself talking back to us. “They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.” I look forward to the day when I have a shiny face. When just looking at me will make people uncomfortable because they won’t be able to avoid the realisation that something supernatural is happening. I don’t want to scare them. I just want to give them a peek at how good it can be.

We all start out poor spiritually. But God saves that poor man. God doesn’t let us stay there. No. He blesses us and gives us the things of the Kingdom (Matthew 5:3). Available to us now. Here. Able to prosper as our souls prosper (3 John 1:2). If we get close to Him, He gets close to us (James 4:8). Renewing us every day that we open the Word and look at it intending to believe what it says because it says it (Romans 12:2). It makes everything possible because the Word is Jesus and Jesus is the Word and it always ALWAYS is about Jesus. Nothing done without Him. All of us are upheld by Him. It’s staggering when you think about it. He upholds your life. Every breath and every cell. You know what’s weirder? He was upholding the lives of the men who were beating, whipping, and nailing Him to a tree. He upheld them even as they mocked. Why would He do that? Love. He loves us.

Reverence Him in return. If you start to think about what He does and His nature, how can you not? Sometimes we need to step away from our preconceptions. Our negative reminders that this world has given us. To look at Him with an open mind. To accept His love. We love because He loved us first (1 John 4:19). We’re meant to love them back. Father. Son. Spirit. There is no reason not to and unlimited reasons to do it. Even that is something that brings us blessing. “Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” The Lord encamps around us. He encamped around Elisha (2 Kings 6:17-20). He doesn’t play favourites. If you’ll do something He says, you’ll get the result of what He said you could have.

We put such faith in the scientific method. The testing, the charts, the surveys. Testing each new theory. Reproducing what someone across the world in a different language says works, and then finding out it works. It’s amazing if you really think about it. Well, the Lord created the scientific method. He’s not challenged by it. He encourages it. Look at today’s verse. “Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good.” If you do what the Word says you should do how the Word says you should do it, we will reap the reward. The exact thing that the Lord says you can have is what you will have. If you, then I, says the Lord in many, many verses. He isn’t lying about it. He isn’t joking. He has an amazing sense of humour, but He doesn’t lie. The Spirit moves on the surface of the world in and around us. It rests on and indwells us. You can’t get around it. You can’t avoid it. But you can miss it.

If we make the Lord our security, our provider, our source of all things, nothing will stop us. Why say it like that? Because Jesus needs to become our all in all. If we are abiding in Him, then our prayers will have faith in them. We are given Faith by Grace. We can let it atrophy or we can strengthen it. We may all have the same measure of faith, but there are those who can lift ten pounds on their best day and others who are benching two tons. It’s the Word that strengthens us as we hear it. As we keep it in front of our eyes and in our ears. Building the fortress of the Lord’s presence around us. Not in our strength, but in His. Not with our works, but His works in and through us.

We live in Him. We move in Him. We dwell in Him. And we stay with Him. Radiant living. Delivered from Fear. Able to walk in His footsteps. Led by His voice. Led into green pasture. Lain down by clear water. Protected, present, and ready to obey. Praying without stopping. Praising without complaining. Giving to Him all the love we can muster. Because He is God. Because He loves us. And because we love Him. Sheltered. Secure. We believe it, we receive it, and we walk in it.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Numbers 14:21

It’s only a matter of time before the world is filled with His glory. Are you helping or hindering? Are you a testimony to the Lord’s healing power? To His redemptive power? To His ability to bless? What is the victory you ALREADY HAVE in Him? The problem isn’t what we are, but what we say. We do it almost unconsciously. We talk trash about ourselves. We’re coming down with a cold. We hurt our leg. Our back is sore. It knows no bounds. Why? Because it is of the curse which is of the enemy and they don’t know how to and also don’t want to stop us. We are the salt of the earth. Salt was used in candle wicks. It helped them burn brighter. We are the salt of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). In those verses, we are also the light of the world. Salt and light. Will it work the way it did in Jesus’ day? I don’t know. But Jesus moved the stone. He did it so we could get in. He could have come out without it being rolled away. But there would always have been doubt. Did he really? Do you think it’s true? etc. This was so that we could BE the light. BE the salt. Without salt and light, we cannot spiritually burn as hot and hard as He wants. This was the message. This was the witness. God listens. Miraculous signs are great. But they pale in comparison to the trust that we have in Him. The reliance and ability to stand on Him and His Word. And if you can do that, you can have what you ask for. Every time. Your life, other people’s lives. As long as there is salt to help our faith be strong, we’ll be a-okay. A witness to the world. Nothing missing, nothing broken. Total rest, total healing. Totally Him.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.