Fear No Fear

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

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Saviour, my helper, and my God.
Psalm 43:5 (emphasis added)

Hope for the Christian is a simple thing. It is to expect with confidence the expectation of obtainment or fulfilment. In other words, we expect things that we’re expecting to be fulfilled. To be brought to fulfilment. Why are we so secure in saying that? How can we take this stance in the face of circumstances that do not agree? God. Simple as that. Our hope is not on us or in things. It is the Lord God Almighty.

“For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have set our trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). We aren’t thinking this willy-nilly. We are not being arbitrary. We are not engaging in wishful thinking. We have set our trust. We have secured it. We secure it through and by the Word. The Word that is our foundation. It teaches us, corrects us, instructs us, renews us, and makes us day by day more and more like Jesus. Proverbs 3:1-7 tells us just that: “My son, don’t forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for they will add to you length of days, years of life, and peace. Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.”

Hearing the Word strengthens our faith. Our faith is a gift of the Lord (Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Peter 1:1, Philippians 1:29, and Acts 3:16). But a muscle given isn’t any good to you. It won’t help you. It exists, but it MUST be exercised. We MUST develop it, strengthen it, deepen it, and let Jesus perfect it. That happens with the Word. The Word deepens your faith. If your muscles are working, you can walk farther. You can believe stronger. You can hope deeper. If you will receive the faith you are given by Grace, you’ll be well suited to receive other things. Things like hope. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Hope is a gift like faith is a gift. Everything good is a gift from God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow” (James 1:17). We can rejoice in hope, especially when we marry it to being constant in prayer and patient in tribulation (Romans 12:12). We were saved because we were born again to living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (1 Peter 1:3). The salvation hope is not tangible. It is a thing of faith and hope and belief. “For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24-25). Patience in good times and in bad. Hope when we can see where it is coming from and hope when we can’t. Faith – manifested obedience – resting in our hope and expecting without wavering the good things of God.

Peter jumped out of the boat and walked. Had doubt, and then started sinking. Jesus hauled him out and asked him why he let doubt win (Mark 6:45-52, Matthew 14:22-36). Doubt will rise every single time hope is birthed. Because we are flesh, we use flesh to interact with the world around us, and if we cannot see it, we tend to doubt it. We hear about something and we don’t take their word. We go look it up. Someone says this thing I saw was disgusting. We’re online five minutes later looking for it. Faster when we’re told we don’t want to see it. We want to see it. But many things in this world have to be envisioned. Martin Luther King Jr had a dream. Politicians talk about their vision for the nation. School boards and city councils talk about their dream for their areas of responsibility. Businesses envision where they’re going. Entrepreneurs envision their products, their company, and their growth. The world likes that because all of that is based in the world. Start talking about ‘faith’ and they tune you out.

We need hope. We need vision. We need faith. We need it. Without it, how can we hope to please the Lord (Romans 14:23)? This is how we are supposed to walk. By faith. Not sight. Sowing into our hope, which is expectation. “Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8). Watch what you sow. Watch it. Every word is a seed. Every. Single. One. We have NO IDEA how serious this is. But it is right in the Word. “I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37). Jesus said that. Jesus does not lie. He only speaks what the Father tells Him to (John 12:49-50). The Lord searches our minds, tries our hearts, and gives to each of us according to our ways and the fruit of our doings (Jeremiah 17:10) which is the extension of what we sow.

We need to faithfully sow our hope in the Lord so that we can get the harvest of our hope in the Lord. Stand on that. Stand firm. “Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a great priest over God’s house, let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water, let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:19-23). Hold fast to our confession of our hope. Hold fast. Like it was your lifeline in a flood. Like it was your child about to fall off a cliff (the one you like, not the one who put ice cream in your favourite shoes). You can trust that the things of the Lord are reliable. You can trust the Lord.

“Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2).

“You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you. Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4).

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me” (John 14:1).

“Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him. Yahweh is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed” (Psalm 28:7-8).

“Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Times change. Nations rise and fall. Weather shifts. Morality of communities shift and evolve and fall. We grow. We alter opinions. We learn new things. We forget others. That is the nature of the fallen creation. That is the nature of man. Shifted like the wind. Never sure of anything. Always searching for the ‘truth’ that we’re willing to accept for this time period according to our feelings and the general opinion of others around us. That’s a sad, pitiful way of functioning. It is NOT the goal. It is NOT the way things were to be. Look back in the garden and all of the junk we’re dealing with now is the junk the devil used the serpent to promise Eve (Genesis 3). Knowledge of hidden things. The real skinny on good and evil. But read all the great writings of human minds. What do you have? A whole lot of not much. It doesn’t hold a candle to the Word. It doesn’t hold a candle to the wisdom of the Lord.

It takes strength to rely on the Lord. He gives us that. The Joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). It takes trust. We can trust Him (Psalm 91). The world will happen around us. Problems might come up. We don’t need to worry about it. Bad news, bad economy, bad prices, bad inflation, bad mortgage rates. None of that will phase you (Psalm 112:7). We can trust in that. Real trust. Secure. No doubt. When doubts come up – and again, it is normal for them to rise – we have a weapon. If the world, or fellow humans, or the enemy can knock us down or rob us of hope, they will try. That is doubt. Your own flesh will bring them up. It is abnormal for a flesh body to look to the spirit and say Yup, that’s real. Yup, that’s true. But we have a weapon. Given to us by the mouth of Jesus Himself: “But Jesus, when he heard the message spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Don’t be afraid, only believe” (Mark 5:36).

Belief. Faith. Manifested obedience to the Word of the Lord. Hoping in the Lord. The Everlasting Merciful Lord. The God of covenants. Through the Lord’s Supper or Communion, we are baptised into His covenants. If it is a covenant, we can be part of it. God has some great covenants for us. Covenants to us. Covenants WITH us. “‘I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land. They will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing. I will cause the shower to come down in its season. There will be showers of blessing. The tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those who made slaves of them. They will no more be a prey to the nations, neither will the animals of the earth devour them; but they will dwell securely, and no one will make them afraid. I will raise up to them a plantation for renown, and they will no more be consumed with famine in the land, and not bear the shame of the nations any more. They will know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh. You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God,’ says the Lord Yahweh”” (Ezekiel 34:25-31).

Isn’t that a covenant to walk on? A hope to embrace? No matter what we see happening around us. No matter what is going on toward us, at us, around us, or behind us. No matter if a thousand fall at our side or ten thousand at our right hand (Psalm 91). We will stand. Firm. And praise the Lord. Praise Him in the morning. Praise Him in the night time. Praise Him at noon, under the blinding sun. Praise Him when it’s easy. Praise Him when it’s hard. Praise Him no matter what (Psalm 89). Praise Him no matter what (Psalm 34). This is the day the Lord made, so praise Him because you’ve found yourself in it (Psalm 118).

We hold onto hope because we praise. He deserves praise. He is trustworthy. He is merciful. He is faithful. He is GOD. Don’t you ever forget that. Don’t ever lose sight of that. Don’t you ever, ever, EVER let go of that. It is your lifeline to the Kingdom, the anointing window opening over your head. Our Helper. Our Provider. Our Sustainer. Our God. Hold to that. You won’t find despair within you. Praise it out. You won’t be disturbed. You will have peace. REAL peace. TOTAL peace. HIS peace. It cannot be understood, but praise the Lord it can be experienced. It can be walked in. He is our Saviour (John 3:17-21). He experienced salvation. We can experience the manifestation of our expected hope – the hope delineated in the Word. The hope that is in line with the Word. His timing, His pleasure, His will. Our blessing.

Hold onto your hope, who is Jesus. Hold to your hope, that is in Jesus. Hold to your hope, which you get through Jesus. Hold to your hope, which glorifies the Father for Jesus. Hold to your hope, and watch fear burn away into ashes in the mouth of the one who birthed it.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: John 4:10

Jesus was tired. Like sat down on the ground beside a well without even pulling out some water and sending his entire crew to get food. Too tired to even make it into the town. That’s tired. I’ve been that tired. Completely collapsed, unable to move until I recovered. Gotta tell you, when the family came asking for food I did not step up. Six hours of shovelling bark mulch was speaking louder to me than their empty bellies. Luckily for all of us, the woman who came to the well did NOT have to wait. In fact, as soon as the conversation starts up Jesus starts to recuperate. He only used a few words to start. She starts asking about his unusual behaviour (treating a Samaritan as a person and a woman as an equal), Jesus responds. More and more. Until the full truth is revealed. Until hope had been given. God is never too tired. He is never too weary. He is always, ALWAYS ready to meet us where we are and take us to where we need to be. Reborn into Him and all the possibilities of the Kingdom. Are you weary standing? He isn’t and He is there to encourage you. Tired of the world? He isn’t going anywhere. He’s there to see you through. He’s always there. He won’t ever leave. And He is never, ever, EVER too tired to get us what we need.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.