Fear No Fear

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

Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
Luke 12:23 (emphasis added)

There are a few words we say first thing in the morning. Like where’s the coffee? Or turn off that alarm. Or get out. An observant and traditional Jew, however, starts the day by saying, ‘I am grateful’ as soon as they are conscious. According to chabad.org, the first instruction in the Code of Jewish Law is ‘Be strong as a lion when you wake up in the morning to serve your Creator.’ The idea of gripping the day with both hands by saying the ‘Modeh Ani’ to your Creator: ‘I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have mercifully restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.’ Upon waking and saying that, the struggle between ‘I want’ and ‘I should’ begins.

It is a struggle that fear loves. When we look at what we should do, we’re looking at the principles and things of the Lord. The things of the world are not compatible with the things of the Lord. That isn’t to say that everything that isn’t the Word is bad, because everything good is from the Lord. The problem is that the flesh is NOT a good marker for what is good. There are many things in this life that feel good but are bad for you. From bacon and doughnuts to cocaine and alcohol. They ‘feel’ good to something in our flesh, but they have been proven again and again to be harmful to us — and I am not judging ANYONE’s choices. Even the WORLD says some of these things are bad. But we don’t listen. We go with what feels good.

When it comes to your spiritual life, you need to take things a little more seriously than we take our health. With our health, there is something as moderation that can mitigate SOME of the effects of taking a bad thing into our bodies. Spiritually, there is NO SUCH THING as moderation. ANYTHING bad is completely bad. Anything good is COMPLETELY good. There is NO GREY. People don’t like hearing that in spite of the thousands of deities that mankind has created over the eons, the myriad of cultures that exist, and the dozens of moral structures we have decided have merit; there is only ONE WAY to Yahweh Most High (Acts 4:12). They don’t like the idea that Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE and that NO ONE gets to the Father without JESUS (John 14:26). Their liking or disliking doesn’t change the TRUTH though (Matthew 11:27).

“We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). We’ve been given understanding. We’ve been given power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). Yet how often do we get off track? How often do we let the physicality of this physical life supersede the spiritual reality of ABUNDANT LIFE? There is a doorway in all of our lives. There are two things that stand outside. Fear and faith. Jesus represents faith – “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Fear is representative of sin because sin IS fear and fear IS sin – we are called to trust Jesus in EVERYTHING and ALL the time.

In the West, when food gets to the point where we do not have a myriad of choices (expiry dates), we panic. Our whole world comes to an end. How many people struggle to function when restaurants are taken away from them? When there is only ONE kind of potato, only VANILLA iced cream, and only those buns with all the seeds in them left in the store? We lose our minds. Is it justified? No. We can survive on a LOT less food, a LOT less variety, and even stuff that we would normally consider ‘garbage’ (you know, the fruit and vegetables that are not ‘pretty’). Just think of those food packs that you can pickup for donation to the food bank or take a look at some of the things that people put in the bins. It doesn’t have the most variety, does it?

When you think about it though, food is food. Like it or dislike it, it will sustain your bodies. We have STRONG food preferences though. When it comes down to the bare bones though, it isn’t as picky as you think. Sweet, savoury, and salty things are preferred by our bodies. Bitter and sour are rejected. What our mothers ate while we were in the womb are tastes that we prefer in some way (sometimes the preference is a subtle underlying taste vs the main flavour). Everything else? It is learned. It can be exposure as a child (or lack thereof). It can be because of emotional experiences that go along with the food, where the food is given, or who gave the food. It can be from advertising or sight of the food in question as you go along in life. It can be from people talking about it. There are so many factors that we like to say that WE like this or WE don’t like that as if it was set in stone. As if we can’t change it as easily now as we could as an infant. But it’s true. We need to choose to ignore what our brain is telling us — the information our feelings are giving it — and choose to consume it. Often it takes as many as twelve servings before we start to see our tastes – or rather our opinions about those tastes – changing. Be determined enough, and they will change.

Spiritually, there is no difference in this principle. Our spirit would choose God and His ways EVERY TIME except… well… it died. It died when the rebellion against God happened (Genesis 3). If we don’t get Jesus’ righteous spirit by getting born again, it stays dead. In the absence of a spirit giving information to our soul, we rely on our feelings. Our feelings will ALWAYS steer us wrong. It is the Holy Spirit giving life to our own spirit that is the ONLY source that we can trust. The Word of the Father is what feeds us (John 6:35). It is the ONLY thing that feeds us. If we forget that, we’re going to starve. If we forget that, we may never truly feed. Sure, the flesh kicks up about it. It fusses and tells us that it isn’t what we want, or that it’s too hard. But that is just a temper tantrum from a child who got peas on their plate not candy.

The same thing surrounds clothes. In reality, if it covers the sensitive bits and keeps us temperature controlled to our environment, who cares what we wear? Does it matter if it came from a thrift store or Neiman Marcus? Sure, the expensive stuff can look nice. The better the materials, the better the product feels. The higher the quality, the better it does its job. But honestly… Does it matter? Ask a teen in public school and you will get a MUCH different answer than the average employee of a grocery store. A construction worker cares about different things than a business executive — whether they are male or female. But we care. We care so much the Lord uses that imagery to get points across to us.

We are clothed with righteousness (Isaiah 61:10, Revelation 19:8). Our salvation is a helmet (Isaiah 59:17). Truth is a belt for our mind (1 Peter 1:13). The Lord takes away rags of spiritual poverty and gives us finery of His making (Zechariah 3:4). And of course, the armour of Jesus that we wear to protect ourselves should be something we put on every day (Ephesians 6:13-18). This is the clothing we should care about. Not what styles are in this season. Not what the neighbours are wearing. Not what some TV personality or celebrity’s publicist has decided on. It gets so distracting not because of itself, but because of all the effort we need to go through to afford the latest fashions, the latest styles, and the best of the best of the best. It’s asking for trouble. Asking for issues. And asking to push aside what the Lord says is best.

Again and again the Lord tells us about a basic principle of the Word: He will provide for us and prosper us in direct relation to how well we seek the Kingdom and try to prosper in His things. Don’t get bent out of shape about the word prosper. When we aren’t desperate for our next meal, that’s prosperity – which is simply the opposite of LACK. When we have a roof over our heads, that’s prosperity. When we have a vehicle, healthy kids, clothes that aren’t threadbare, and don’t have to worry about those material day-to-day bills, we’re prosperous. It doesn’t have to mean hundreds of thousands in the bank and top of the line possessions — but IMPORTANTLY, it doesn’t mean we WON’T have them. Unless we put Him first, we won’t learn the habits that we need to keep possessions from ruling our lives. Unless we put Him first, we won’t see all we get as an opportunity to bless others. Unless we put Him first, we will value THINGS over our KING. You can’t prosper if you aren’t humble. You can’t prosper if you aren’t worshipful. You can’t prosper if you aren’t thankful. You can’t prosper if you aren’t abiding in Jesus. Not the way God wants you to.

Don’t let the cares of the world, the fads of fashion, and the fear that the world attaches to their supply lines infect you. Don’t catch the virus of worry. It’s very contagious. Inoculate yourself with the Word of God. Vaccinate yourself with Jesus. He is the ONLY one that will keep you where you should be. Don’t fall in lust with the lifeless existence of worry, depression, and fear. Walk in the love of abundant life. Walk in Jesus. You need to choose to walk where He says. He’ll empower you, but YOU have to reject the fear. YOU have to choose to look on the Lord’s side and refuse to pick up doubt over anything that God says is so. The Word NEVER lies. The Lord will meet ALL OUR NEEDS. He is loving, merciful, and gracious. Seek the Kingdom, seek the face of the Lord, and let HIM worry about everything else.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Jonah 3:1-4

We are often given things to do by the Lord. Some of them are big, like in today’s affirmation. Other times they are small. A note written to someone. Buying a beverage. Giving a smile. It doesn’t matter if it is a huge mission that people will take notice of, or a soft word said where no one else will see. They are tasks appointed to you, and should be done. That is what obedience is. That is what servanthood is. Take a moment to take a deep breath and not be judged. Now, ask yourself how often you have either not done the task at all or only done part of it? No judgment. Don’t get offended. Just look at it as it is. Be honest. This is what Jonah did. Tasked with preaching redemption to Nineveh, he preached ‘you’re gonna die in forty days.’ Tasked with preaching to the large city (that took three days to cross) he went one and stopped. Whether he needed to go through it all or not (because the news travelled), Jonah had no way of knowing. There were no social media posts. No cellphones. No internet searches. He did the bare minimum and stopped. The lesson we can learn from it is two-fold (at least). First, we need to make sure we do all the jobs that we are tasked to do when we are tasked to do it. Second, we serve a merciful and gracious God. The Lord didn’t smite him mightily. The Lord reached out and taught the lesson of compassion again. And He’ll do it with us. Again and again and again until it takes. Because THAT is what we need. Compassion for each other. We can have it because He has it for us. We love, because He loved us first (1 John 4:19). That is a lesson never to be forgotten. God is love and we are to be known as those who love (John 13:35). That is what brings people to the Kingdom. The love of our compassionate, merciful, righteous, and gracious God.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.