Fear No Fear

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

“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
Luke 21:34 (emphasis added)

There have been times in my life when my brakes got more of a workout than I had planned. It isn’t that I was worried about not having brakes. I wasn’t babying them. But I was carousing with the others in the vehicle to the point where I wasn’t paying attention to the road. I wasn’t looking where I was going. I wasn’t looking at the other cars or the flow of traffic. Let me tell you right now, it is a miracle that none of those times ended in accidents – and I mean that. I have been in three accidents while behind the wheel of a vehicle in my life and only one of them was my fault. The times I was carousing, the Lord MUST have been with me or the other drivers, because those times of stopping came SUDDENLY.

We cannot see everything in front of us. The accident I was in, I was driving too fast. I was young. I was (yup) STUPID. I was going too fast. And when the person in front of me decided to turn, I was unprepared to stop in time. It came on me SUDDENLY and bam. Broken car. Totalled. Gone. Wasn’t even MY car – it was Dad’s. Yup. That’s a conversation I didn’t want to have. The man was merciful though. Not happy, but merciful. His mercy came on me SUDDENLY too, but I didn’t deserve it. He was able to give it because there hadn’t been a prohibition on no accidents. That was just common sense. He hadn’t decreed and given me chances and chances. He was a parent, but he wasn’t a Lord.

The Lord has given us all chance after chance. He has worked hard to turn our eyes on Him. He has worked hard to send the message that He isn’t mad at us. “For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God” (John 3:17-21). Sin has been paid for (1 John 2:2). If we will accept Him as the payment of that price by confessing His lordship and repenting of our sins, then we will not – as saved children of the Lord, Romans 10:9-11 – face judgment. We will be called to account for our words and deeds, as to whether we were faithful workers of the Lord or not (Matthew 12:36-37, Romans 14:10). But if not? Well, if we won’t let Him pay for our sin then we will. And we won’t have a lot of time. The Lord does things quickly: “Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of that which God had prepared for the people; for the thing was done suddenly” (2 Chronicles 29:36).

Now don’t get me wrong. I am all for Jesus coming soon. For an end to all this foolishness and a beginning of our beginning in heaven physically. But I also kind of don’t want it because of all the people who are NOT following the Lord. Who are DENYING Jesus. And who do not want Him at ALL. My heart hurts for them. But that of course is why we are still talking Jesus, praising Jesus, and sharing Jesus in every corner where He takes us. So that they all can hear. So they all can know that the Lord God Almighty is REAL. He is REAL and He LOVES them. The Day of the Lord will come SUDDENLY. If they don’t know about it, they won’t have time to know. When the Lord moves, it will be fast.

“The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high battlements. I will bring such distress on men that they will walk like blind men because they have sinned against Yahweh. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land” (Zephaniah 1:14-18). “The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”” (Revelation 6:15-17).

How can any of us stand against that? How is this a NO FEAR verse? Isaiah 2:12 is how. “For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low–” Those who are proud and arrogant, lifting themselves up, these are the ones who get caught up in carousing. They are the ones who say that could never happen to me. I am holy. I am great. I am something special — not special in the eyes of God, but special because I am wonderful or accomplished or successful or rich or a key player in my church or whatever. The proud and the arrogant refuse to see that they make mistakes. That they are in the wrong. That they can DO wrong. But we ALL need to submit. We all need to repent. We all need to look at the Word, submit to what we find there, and be broken before Him. To replace pride with humbleness and arrogance with a servant’s heart. The humble before the Lord will be lifted up even as the arrogant will be broken down.

Self-righteousness is one of the easiest things to fall into. It is one of the worst things to pick up. We can only avoid it by examining ourselves regularly (2 Corinthians 13:5-10). We do it in life all the time. Making sure we’re not full of ourselves. Spiritually, we need to do it too. We are NOT the policemen of those around us. We are NOT the judge. We are NOT the jury. We are the truth tellers. The speakers of the Word. No judgment. Love. We are to speak from love. We are to speak in love. We are to speak for love. Real love. True love. When we examine ourselves, we look at ourselves in the light of the Word. We revere the wisdom of God and see where we must remain humble in order to accept admonishment and remain penitent – repentful where needed and thankful everywhere else. Acknowledging that the Lord gives us all that is good (James 1:17). The Lord watches over us (Psalm 121:5-8). The Lord calls us to repentance (2 Chronicles 7:14), not to judge us but to meet with us – and we can’t do that without abiding and resting in Jesus.

If we are carousing, if we are drunkards, if we are worried and anxious, if we are fearful or arrogant or prideful or purposefully ignorant, we CANNOT be humble. We will be too busy doing the things, thinking the things, and trying to figure out the things to have any true self-examination. Any honest look at our motivations and thoughts takes time. It takes study. It takes prayer. It takes seeking the Lord. It takes faith that has been deepened, strengthened, and exercised. It takes more than we are. It takes Yahweh God renewing us into things whose source is HIM, not US. If we wrap ourselves in fear, we will miss all the rest. We will miss all the time that we are being given. You cannot repent if you don’t think it’s wrong. You won’t be a servant if you think you deserve to rule – doesn’t that philosophy sound familiar (Isaiah 14:12-15).

Vanity, greed, selfishness, self-exaltation, and pride. These are easy to spot when we are honest. What about worry? Anxiety? Depression? Addiction? These things are just as dangerous as they are self-blinding to the truth. It takes more to look at ourselves honestly, to look past them. They are based in feelings and perception. But if we rely on the Word, we don’t have to depend on feeling and perception. We can rely on the Lord God Almighty (John 14:6-7). We have been given a spirit of truth so we can recognise the truth in the Word deep inside where it can make a difference in our decisions (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We can decide to be servant hearted (Matthew 20:26-28). We can choose to be humble before God.

Work on your heart. Get the Word in there. Let the Lord use it to sanctify you (John 17:17). Examine your motives, your words, your deeds, and your thoughts. Determine to be honest before the Lord. Humble. Thankful. Praiseful. Walk in the Lord, led by the Word, yoked to Jesus and abiding in Him. It is the only way to step forward. It is the only way to advance. Yahweh God is a God of advancement. The time is coming. It will come SUDDENLY. Be mindful now. Be WORDful now. Don’t wait. Don’t be taken unawares.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Jeremiah 25:15-16/Deuteronomy 4:31-32

The Lord has a deep cup. He will NOT forget His covenants because He is a COVENANT KEEPING GOD. However… However, He does have a cup of wrath. It is filling up. No one knows when it will be full. No one knows when it will be sent out for the peoples of the earth to drink. It has demonstrably happened in the past. It will happen again, but this time it will be the cup of all cups. The final cup. The final drink. It will come suddenly upon us. All we are going to have is the Covenant. It has shortened the days of wrath (Matthew 24:22). And God will be trying until the very last moment to get people to accept the way out that He prepared for us (2 Peter 3:9). But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat; and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10). We do NOT have to drink the cup of wrath. We can drink the cup of COVENANT. The Covenant of Jesus. The Covenant of Yahweh. The Covenant of the Spirit. The Covenant of the Word. It’s all the same Covenant. All the same God. A God of Mercy and Love. But a God whose cup is filling up. He loves us so much. But it is OUR choice. Will we break our pride, bend our knees, and humble ourselves before Him? Will we submit to the Word instead of holding up what we feel and what we approve of? Will you seek His face? It takes effort. It takes discipline. It takes repeated, uncompromised, and honest soul searching. Leave no thought unturned. Bring them to the cross (Matthew 16:24-28), carry home the good, and leave the bad there (1 Peter 5:6-7). Where they belong.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.