Fear No Fear

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

But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
Isaiah 9:1 (emphasis added)

Who doesn’t like a good second chance? Or even a first chance that you get led through with a kind word? I know of a YouTuber who seems to have his stuff together most of the time. But in one recent video he talked a little more about his life. Of how in high school he had a whole plan. How the plan hadn’t worked out. And even how that very day he’d had a panic attack while ordering food in a restaurant (and food is kind of this guy’s thing). He’s in his mid-twenties struggling to do something he has done hundreds if not thousands of times. But they walked him through the process. They gave him help. They got him through it with a smile and he went home with food. That’s what we all want. Help. A second chance when we mess up. God wants the same thing.

When we miss it. When we fail. When we don’t do what it is that we are supposed to do. When we act out of accordance with the Will and the Word of the Lord. When we act without faith. When we choose to sin. He wants us to have another chance. But the Lord is RIGHTEOUS (Psalm 145:17). He isn’t going to ever be anything else and unrighteousness has no place near Him (Revelation 22:15). In order to have that chance, we must repent. This isn’t some ‘gee, sorry’ lip service. This is honest, broken, repentance through confession. The first step to confession is confessing – inviting in the forgiveness and cleansing of God by admittance of a thing the Lord God says is wrong. The second part of confession is repentance – the process led by the Holy Spirit of turning away from anything opposed to the truth of God. Now, we have to confess before we can accomplish repentance, because repentance is accomplished with the Holy Spirit in Jesus (we are nothing without Him – John 15). But if we confess in honesty, He will cleanse us from our sin and restore righteousness to us (1 John 1:9). If we do NOT confess, we are saying we are right and are rebelling against the Lord. If HE says it is wrong, then it is wrong whether WE feel that way, think that way, or agree. If Yahweh God says it is sin, then IT. IS. SIN.

Sin separates us from the Lord (Isaiah 59:1-2). Separation from the Lord is the only true anguish that a human can experience (Revelation 20:14-15). Every other horrible thing that we do to each other, every horrible emotion that can grip our mind and heart, all of them are a drop in a bucket compared to the ocean of anguish that is separation from the Lord. Why would you want to do ANYTHING but repent and get right with God? Why keep yourself from experiencing all that the Lord has for you in the arena of fellowship? When we are in sin – before salvation – and when we choose to sin after we are saved, we cannot have fellowship until that sin is dealt with because sin is rebellion. You can’t be fellowshipping with someone whom you are rebelling from. Take the prodigal (Luke 15:11-32). When he was rebellious, the father could do nothing. But when the son repented and turned back, then the father could forgive him, bless him, and treat him as if nothing had ever separated them in the first place. THAT is repentance. THAT is confession. And THAT is the second chance God has for us by faith, under grace, in Jesus, our Saviour and Lord.

It doesn’t matter if it is small. It doesn’t matter if it is big. It doesn’t matter if it is a traditional sin. It doesn’t matter if it is you not doing something that the Lord told you to do and you just haven’t gotten around to it. ANYTHING not done in faith (which is belief as much as it is manifested obedience) is sin because ONLY obedience is acceptable when we deal with the Lord (Romans 14:23 and John 14:15). There is nothing else. This is black and white. No variation, no turning, and no shadows. Obedience. Period. Anything else needs confession and repentance. It might seem like a lot, but it’s not. No matter how far we wander it is a single step back into the Grace of the Lord when we are truly repentant. It isn’t easy. Jesus calls it crucifying ourselves daily.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds. Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom”” (Matthew 16:24-28).

He wasn’t joking and neither should we. This is serious stuff. This is fellowship stuff. This IS the stuff of salvation. We aren’t meant to be bowing and scraping and worshipping the oh-so-mighty-we-aren’t-worthy God. That’s worldly foolishness. Of course we’re not worthy! What human could be? We’ve all fallen (Romans 3:23). Every one of us. We have all sinned and we will all choose to sin again (although we do NOT have to) because we are human and fallible (Proverbs 20:9 and 1 John 1:8). But we are to strive to be in Jesus (John 15). We are to walk in the light, which is the Word of God (Psalm 119:105-106). We are to try with all we have in word, thought, and deed obey the Lord our God with all there is within us. All the time. About everything. There is NOTHING that we are not to lay at His feet. Anything worthwhile He’ll pick up and hand back to us (James 1:17). Anything He leaves isn’t good for us. It might feel good. It might sound good. It might be really, really nice. But it isn’t for US. There are many fine things that turn on all our feelings and cravings and oh-that’s-nice-ness but aren’t for us. Not everything is going to build us up, maintain us, and be with us in the way that the Lord wants for us regardless of its inherent goodness (1 Corinthians 10:23).

God’s best for us is beyond our imagining. And it will remain beyond our imagining until we get the mind of God ignited in us so that it burns in thick and thin, rain and shine, night and day, richness and poorness, in health and in not yet health. When that TRUTH burns within us, it turns us on to the simple fact that the promises of God are not made to the world but to US HIS BELOVED CHILDREN (Hebrews 10:23). Some are believable. Some are unbelievable. Some are downright impossible. All are true. Each and every one of them. Some have conditions. Some are because He just wants to. But all have value – like everything else in the Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If we will strive to stay within His fence, He will give to us all that HE knows is good for us and we will not miss, lack, or regret anything He doesn’t give.

We have anguish in this life. DO NOT FEAR. It will not last. It will not overcome us. We WILL not be swamped by it. It doesn’t matter if we made the mess, we fell in the mess, or the mess fell on us. The Father is there for us. The Holy Spirit will pick us and and guide us to Him. As we are ever humble, confessing all that isn’t obedience, and abiding in Jesus striving to obey. To live a life of repentance. To crucify ourselves so that every day we are more like Him and less like us (John 3:30-35). Jesus will get us there. Jesus will fellowship with us. Jesus will be yoked with us, if we’ll submit to Him. He does the heavy pulling, we both do the obeying, and the Father drives us to good things and better things and the best things – HIS things.

There will be no more gloom. No fear. There will be peace. The blessed peace of another chance in repentance to the ever-merciful gracious loving Yahweh God Almighty. In every way. Every day. In Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: John 3:30-35

What can we do outside of Jesus? Nothing. What can Jesus do in us? Everything. As we are renewed to His thinking (Romans 12:2), we stop thinking the old way. The way of LAW. Instead, He develops in us Kingdom Thinking. Of what God can do WITH us (Matthew 19:26). It isn’t that we become less. It is that we become less of what WE think and more of what HE thinks. That Jesus becomes a part of everything we are. Everything we say. Everything we think. That we give less and less place to those things we have always assumed we should have or struggle with (bigotry, sickness, lack, hunger, toil, strife, disagreements, struggle to love, etc). In the natural we educate ourselves about things and new information can really change what we think and how we live our lives. Why do we think the things of the spirit will be any less? Open yourself to learning from the Word. It isn’t that it’s new. There is nothing new. God’s word is final. But boy, is there more than just basic meanings in there. There are new ways of seeing His TRUTH if HE is the one shining the light. Think Kingdom, not Law. Think Jesus, not you. Think the Father, not the world. Think the Spirit, not what you know. The Kingdom is faith and faith is the kingdom. Let it transform your thinking by letting the Word into ALL your life, not just the easy parts.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.