Fear No Fear

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

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 9:10 (emphasis added)

Fear of the Lord is not fearful afraidness. It is reverence for righteousness. It’s honour for one who inhabits a position worthy of honour. It’s acknowledgement of one who is superior. It was a term that finds its origin in the Middle Ages in Europe in the midst of the feudal system. The better translation of the word is reverence. But if you understand the term, either will do. Yahweh is the Almighty God. The source of all that is, all that was, and all that ever will be. He is the only one worthy of true reverence. The only one who we should bow our knees to. The only one who IS Truth, Righteousness, and Love. It is the starting point of everything. It is the beginning of things. It is also our bedfellow along the journey of existence. Every time we forget it, we will have issues. Every time we lose sight of it, we will have problems.

We are to seek God’s Kingdom first. We are also to seek His Righteousness first. Which means, they are hand in hand (Matthew 6:33). In context, Jesus was teaching that our eyes should not be focused on the world around us or our ‘needs’. The reason is, the Father has promised – covenanted with us – to provide our needs. He knows all we need (Matthew 6:32). He tells us that the Gentiles chase after these things. He’s right – of course. The world chases after their needs. They do it so well, they have a system where people are designed to buy before they earn. Then they ‘service their debt’ while also spending on what they need day to day. This becomes a huge problem when they can’t get work that will service the debt as well as pay for on-going expenses as well as socking some away for retirement. It makes people crazy. It makes people stressed. It creates a LOT of problems and situations and mental health issues. It’s a terrible system and the Lord wants us to disconnect from it.

The Lord will meet our needs if we are seeking Him first. That means before we start on our day of things, we’ve checked in with Him. That means before we pay a bill, collect a pay-cheque, buy a grocery, drive a car, or do anything, we’ve made sure to put Him first. We start with praise and prayer. We start with the Word. Ten minutes. Twelve minutes. A half hour. Two hours. The time doesn’t matter as much as the intent. We need to focus on Him in the time we have set aside and make sure that it is first and foremost in our lives. Millions of people get up groggy every day and choose not to function until they have their morning cup of caffeine. Spiritually, He is asking the same thing. For us to get up and plug into Him so that we can get rid of our spiritual grog. To clear our heads and make sure that our eyes are on the important things, not the things that fill up our time and efforts. No matter what is happening in the natural, what is happening in the spiritual is much more important.

How can the Lord make your paths straight if you’re ignoring what He is saying? Psalm 27 tells us that the Lord is to be our light and our salvation. If we have no light, we will not see our salvation. Not just salvation from sin and death. But salvation from the little things. From our bills that need paying. From our lack of a job. From our colds and diseases. From our everything that doesn’t seem to work out and try to cloud our minds with worry. Jesus overcame the world (John 16:33). The world is a wide place and there is a lot in it. But what does it say? “Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth” (Philippians 2:9-10). Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Jesus is above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named. For all of time from beginning to end. All things are in subjection under the feet of Jesus. Jesus is the head of all things (Ephesians 1:20-22). If that is true, then Jesus has the authority to save us from all things that are, were, and will ever be.

If Jesus has the authority. If Jesus has the plan. If Jesus has and is the answer to all things, then why aren’t we bringing Him all things, consulting Him about all things, and making sure that we have His word on everything of every kind always? Doesn’t it make sense? To go to the one who has the answers? To do to the one who can work it out? Not just for ourselves, but for all the others too? Who but God can see the whole puzzle? Make a plan for all the pieces? Make sure that we all connect and click and turn and weave so that everything good is coming to all? The Father has a plan. Jesus tells us what it is through His Holy Spirit. If we bother to seek Him on it, we will not be disappointed. Why? Because Jesus talks to us. “Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you don’t know.’” (Jeremiah 33:3). If there is a clearer verse that teaches us that the Lord will explain the Word to us in a way that we can understand, I don’t know where it is.

Jesus is our shepherd, if we will let Him shepherd us (John 10:27-28). He isn’t stagnant about it. The Word is living and active and full of much that we are desperate to know (Hebrews 4:12). We’re warned that we cannot understand it on our own again and again and again. But we also know that “Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). How can we hope to be ready for anything if we aren’t letting ourselves be taught and guided? We have the armour of God at our disposal (Ephesians 6:13-18). We have the Word at our disposal. We have all these things. Are we using them? Are we letting Him teach us what we need to know to use them? Because without His guidance, we are hopelessly out of our depth. He is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE (John 14:6).

What way should we go in life? What path to take? What direction should we go? Jesus is the WAY that can tell us that so that we are never lost, never alone, and always moving forward in the right direction. What is real and what is not. What can we rely on? What in all the nonsense and trouble and social re-birthing around us can be trusted? Jesus is the TRUTH that can reveal it to our understanding so that it becomes the cornerstone of our heart. What is it all about? How can we hang onto it? How can we keep it? How can we enjoy it in full abundance and respite and peace and contentment? Jesus is the LIFE which He gives us with all good things and with such abundance that we can’t comprehend it until we have experienced it. This is WHO JESUS IS. This is WHY JESUS CAME. This is the way to the Father. This is the door to the Kingdom. This is the path that we are meant to be on. Now and always. A path easy to step off of, but a path that cannot be forgotten. We can ignore it. We can avoid it. We can try and make our own. But it is only in Jesus, by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus that we will have what we seek, what we need, and what we want.

Seeking after God is an all the time thing. It is a journey without end, not a place where we stop. Christianity is ever forward. Not in our own plans, but in His. Not in our own time, but in His. Not in our own understanding, but in His. Not in our own will, but in His. Yoked to Jesus, driven by the Father, every closer to seeing His face with our naked eyes. Not these physical ones we use now, but the renewed ones in our heavenly bodies that will have when we stand before the Throne as beloved children to worship Him. Now we can do that in the spirit, but soon we will do that in reality. Nothing between us. An honoured place we have in Jesus. It is by our resurrection into Him that we get all these things. By Grace, through Faith. We must believe and let that belief drive our actions, words, and thoughts. Together working by Him to walk in what He has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:8-10). There is nowhere else to be. Nowhere else to walk. Not and have life. Not and have peace. Not and have functioning faith. We need to keep that before us. It helps us keep Him before us. It helps us remember that He is the reason for everything. When we reverence Him, it starts the whole glorious journey going.

“I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free. Teach me, Yahweh, the way of your statutes. I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart. Direct me in the paths of your commandments, for I delight in them. Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways. Fulfill your promise to your servant, that you may be feared. Take away my disgrace that I dread, for your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness” (Psalm 119:32-40).

We must flee the things that are not of the Lord. Flee them and pursue the Lord with all our heart. With all our mind. We must IGNORE the things of the world that are not good. We must PAY ATTENTION to the things of the Lord. To seek it like we seek good meals. To seek it like we seek love and acceptance. To seek it like we seek affirmation and approval. To seek it like we do breath. Like we are drowning and are desperate for just one more clear, unobstructed breath. The Lord needs to be that for us. A clear, unobstructed breath that we are so desperate for we are fighting for it with everything within us. Have you ever lost anything important? Your phone? A hundred bucks? Your car keys? That thing you need? You seek it don’t you? I’ve turned my house upside down more than once. Ripping open boxes and totes, crawling into the back of the closet, opening every drawer, going through the bookcases, and on and on and on. I sought. And sought. Every couple of days I went back and did it. I did it until I had been into every single container, corner, nook, and cranny. I spent time trying to remember it, where I saw it last, where I placed it last, and so on. I still don’t know where it is, but I sought it. You have too, haven’t you? That is seeking. When was the last time you sought the Lord like that? When was the last time you wanted Him so bad you did everything in your power (mentally and physically) to see the Lord God Almighty. Have you asked Him into your life, or have you tried to get into His?

We read the Word and read the Word and we stop seeing it. We are simply reading it. It’s mechanical. And so we say, oh well. I had better take a break. We put it down. We’ve all done it. What we SHOULD be doing is putting it down so that we can pray and seek the Spirit’s guidance and ask for help in seeing Jesus on every page, pick it up, and keep reading. We give up. We don’t give up when we lose our pets. When we can’t find our kids. We keep looking until we find them. Why are we giving up when it comes to the Lord? Why is it we are stopping before it is time to stop? Because it is NEVER time to stop. It WON’T become a chore unless we disconnect from the Living One and LET it become a chore. “Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). We need the Spirit to help us. We need other people to help us. Bible study groups we have heard of. Maybe we need to be starting Bible Reading groups. Maybe it is time for us to get together with others of like mind to read the Word together. With modern technology we can do it daily and never need to leave the house. Not once. We can do video calls. We can do it with the camera covered or turned off. The important thing is that we are hearing the sound of the Word. Entering our ears, filtered through the mind that it is renewing, and echoing down into our heart.

Seek the Lord. Chase Him. Look for Him. Take every opportunity you can to get close to Him, walk after Him, listen to Him, do everything you can. Don’t turn aside. Don’t choose to be bored with it. Don’t choose for it to be tiresome. Don’t choose for it to be a chore. Make the decision that this is a lifeline that will keep you from drowning. Make the decision that this is the thing that is going to put colour into your life. This IS the blue sky, this IS the white clouds, this IS the rainbow sparkling over the misted mountains of the morning. This is the vibrant life that you have always wished for. The Lord turns everything around. Because He is where Righteousness is. He is where abundant life is. He is where love is. He is where peace is. He is where mercy is. He is where kindness is. He is where everything that is worth anything is. He is the SOURCE of all things.

“Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life”” (John 4:13-14). Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:48-51). Jesus is the water of life (John 6:53-58). He is the life of forever. He says it. The Father affirms it. Who wants less than life? We fight to stay alive. We fight to remain healthy. That’s in the natural. Why would the spiritual be any different? It should be more so. We should be fighting for it. Striving for it. Why? Because there is life out there. There is life that doesn’t end.

There is life that is vibrant, bountiful, blessed, and prosperous. It STARTS on the spiritual level from Jesus. We are resurrected to Him, dying to the flesh and being raised to LIFE in Jesus the Anointed One. Once there, we need to seek. Seek and seek and seek again. God is a God of movement and we need to move along with Him. Both going in the same direction: the Throne. Seeking the Lord is to make an attitude of Reverence toward Him as the number one thing in your life. It is the beginning of the journey. The beginning of a journey without end, a journey of constant growth, a journey of JOY in JESUS. Enjoying the perfect love of our Lord and Saviour. Where perfect love is, there is no fear (1 John 4:18).

If we revere the Lord, we seek the Lord. If we seek the Lord, we will find the Lord (2 Chronicles 15:2). It is a promise for all who follow Him. All who seek Him. Let true wisdom be your guide: reverence the Lord and put seeking Him before any and everything else in your life.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Acts 17:26-28

What is the first and foremost sign that God loves us? He doesn’t hide from us. He doesn’t hide where He is. He doesn’t hide what He is. He doesn’t hide His standards. He doesn’t hide His tools, gifts, and wisdom. God is Righteous and asks us to be Righteous. By grace He gives us faith to believe in Him so that we will accept Jesus as our saviour, confess our belief, and get resurrected into Jesus where we can abide and get everything that He is in ourselves. Fellow children of the Father. Co-heirs in the Kingdom. It means that we also do not need to hide what we are. New creatures and creations in Jesus. Not subject to the same rules as the rest of the world. We are subject to the law of LOVE. We love God first and foremost. We love the rest of everyone just after that. We cannot hate. We cannot. It’s a sin and we are not sinners. We love. It is WHO WE ARE because it is WHO GOD IS. Loving is not affirming. Loving is not condoning. Love is pure. It is precious, correcting, and holy. May we seek Him and seek to understand His love, so that we can show it to the world. Unfiltered. Unadulterated. Pure. Holy. And HIS.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.