Fear No Fear

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

Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (emphasis added)

Have you ever gotten out of a debt? Or got out of something like debt? Where you owed something, were required to do that thing, and were delivered from it? Debt paid, obligation cancelled or met by another, or inclement weather cancelling plans. Doesn’t it feel great? A weight that lifts off your chest? Easier to breathe. Relief flowing through your veins. A new chance at life – almost. It is a feeling that we all enjoy. It is something special to live without that kind of weight on your shoulders. As a society we spend tens of thousands of hours trying to work our way to that kind of freedom. There are countless advertisements promoting the lifestyle — usually safely retired and sipping drinks on a golf course or yacht near a sunset beach. The idea of no toil. No ties. No burdens. A life of freedom. A life that we have or at least one that we can have – IN JESUS.

Jesus was joyful to go to the cross. Not to experience the cross, mind you. That was pure torture – had to be because that was the price (Romans 3:23, 6:23; Isaiah 53:4-5). He did it out of love for us (John 3:16-18). He did it by choice – no ONE, no POWER, no BEING, and no ENTITY forced Him (John 10:17-18). It wasn’t the experience of the cross that He was joyful about – for that He was sorrowful (Isaiah 53:3). It was what lay on the other side of the cross. Once that barrier of penalty was broken, true freedom was released. The Word on healing went out. The Word on salvation went out. The Word on freedom went out. The Word on blessing went out. It went out right from the moment Jesus declared it to be FINISHED (John 19:30): to make restitution, to make peace, to be repaid, to fulfil, to restore, to be at peace, to be finished, to be peaceable, to be completed, to be made ready. Once Jesus was raised to life, we were able to enter into that resurrection with Him. “For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin” (Romans 6:5-6).

It is in Jesus that we have all these things. He is the vine. We are the branches. We are connected to Him and get all things from Him. We stay connected to Him so that we can get life. So that we can be blessed. So that we can receive everything that the Father has for us. So that we can walk in the Spirit as He walked in the Spirit (Romans 8:1). “In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:8-11). Our Joy is living WITHOUT fear. When we don’t give in to fear, we are able to keep our eyes where they belong: on the Word.

The Word is what we walk on. The flagstones of the path that the Lord lays out for us (Proverbs 3:5-6), lights for us (Psalm 119:105), and leads us down (Proverbs 16:9). We focus on the Word so that our minds can be renewed to His things. So that we can take in the wisdom that He freely gives (James 1:5-6). When we learn His wisdom and walk in His ways – not by force, but out of love for Him – then we are equipped by Him for all good things. Not so that we can have good things for their own sake. No. So that we may have everything good to do His will. To be pleasing in His sight. To abide in Jesus so that we can do all that the Lord has for us (Hebrews 13:21). So that we can accomplish all that He has for us. This is the race that Paul talks about. The choice to do what He wants because He says it is good to do. That’s it. It is a simple thing. Really.

But we can’t run chained up. We cannot move forward when we are tied down. We cannot succeed at what is laid before us when we are constantly looking down or back at what our situation was. God is a God of movement (Acts 2:17). He flows. He doesn’t stay in one place. He doesn’t want us to either. Forward. Ever forward. In a race you start at one place and have the goal to get to the other place. The most important thing is to get there. Not to win, but to get there. When you race to win, you often lose. When you race to do your best, you frequently win. God’s race, though, isn’t about winning. It’s about getting there. Reaching the goal that the Lord God lays before you. It’s different for everyone. Different starting place. Different pace. Different lanes. Some have tall hurdles. Some have small ones. Some have pits to leap over. Others have a gravel track. None have complete smoothness because the world and the enemy don’t want you to even run – not to mention finishing. The enemy wants you to trip, get off the track, stop running, or not even start in the first place (1 Peter 5:8). The world simply hates anyone running a race they don’t understand or to see success that makes THEM feel that maybe they’re not right (John 15:18). But Jesus came to defeat the works of Satan and thereby free you from your chains (1 John 3:8).

We need to leave fear behind. Fear is the substance that each and every chain on us is made from. They all come from a place of fear. This is why from the front of the bible to the back God stands against fear. He warns us about fear. He equips us to deal with fear. He made a plan to redeem us from fear. He renews us to think along paths of faith instead of fear. He challenges us to step out of its grip. He encourages us to develop the practice of the presence of the Lord so that we can walk under His wings of peace. Jesus came, witnessed, died, went to hell, and then rose again to life in order to destroy those chains. To destroy our habits of fear. To destroy the atmosphere of fear. They are gone. If you truly believe, confess, and submit to Jesus as the Anointed One, the Holy Son of God, your Lord and Saviour, then you will be given the keys to death and hell. The keys that unlock the locks of the chains that the Lord broke apart. We are enabled to move away from and apart from them. But will we choose to?

There is a condition – phantom limb syndrome – where people who have undergone amputation of a limb experience sensations in the limb that doesn’t exist anymore. They say that it is often resistant to treatment. This is EXACTLY what we experience. We are new creatures in Jesus. Totally remade. Lovers of the things of the Lord. But we get these sensations. These impulses. These things that are attached to our old man. The sin that the old man let in the door. It is not always a fun war to have. “For I delight in God’s law after the inward person, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law” (Romans 7:22-25). In Jesus, we can put that war to rest. With our eyes focused on Him, we can run the race. Walking on the Word.

“Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:30-31). Waiting on Yahweh. Looking to Jesus. Submitting to His yoke in humble obedience. Walking in the Love of God, which is obedience to His commands, statutes, and ordinances — obedient to the Word. This is how we run our race. This is how we live free. We lay down our burdens. We step out of our chains. We step into Jesus. We pick up our cross – our reminder of all that Jesus bought for us. All that Jesus won for us. All that Jesus enables us to live in.

Jesus did it for us with joy. We too can do it in joy. In joy for the Father. In joy for Jesus. In joy for the Spirit. Encouraging each other, not from the sidelines, but from beside each other. Running hand in hand, arm in arm, ready to lift up those who stumble – without judgment, bitterness, or malice (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Our race isn’t getting longer. The finish is closing in on us. This is not the time to take your eyes off the Lord (Peter showed us that in Matthew 14:22-33). This is the time to double-down, push on through, and encourage everyone else to as well. “Let’s consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

This is the life of freedom. No burdens – we lay them at the cross. No bondage – we walk in faith and reject fear. No toil – we work the tasks the Lord has for us in joy. Walking in Love of God, enjoying His Peace. A life of freedom. In Jesus. Now and always. The breathing easy kind of life you’ve always dreamed of. A reality as we labour in our race, humble and submitted to the Lord, obedient to the will of the Father and the Word that proclaims it. Enjoying victory because Jesus IS victory. Enjoying freedom because Jesus IS freedom. Enjoying all blessing because Jesus IS blessing. Lay aside the weights, cast off the chains, do what God calls you to. Live FREE.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Psalm 145:9

God looked at all that He had made and said “it is very good” (Genesis 1:12). This is TRUTH because God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18, Titus 1:2, Numbers 23:19). God is truth so all He says is truth (Psalm 25:5, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, John 1:17). All He made was absolute goodness. Choice was absolutely good as a thing. He created choice. It WAS GOOD. What we did with it… not so much. We fell and now we cannot see the absolute goodness of creation because we are seeing it AFTER the bad choice. We can neither explain or comprehend the evil that is in the world. We see it as the problem of suffering. How can a good God permit it? Look at the atrocities that we commit against one another. But all the evil we see is the consequence of choice. Not of HAVING choice, but of what we DID to choice. Adam was CREATED perfect. The rest of all humans ever were born of him. AFTER he fell. We share his fallen DNA. So does creation. How is this an affirmation of God’s love? Because Yahweh God is good to ALL. He has tender mercy toward ALL His creation. He STILL sees the absolute good of what He created. He sees it and knows that we can get back to it. That was why Jesus came. Restoration of who we are. Giving us an identity in Jesus. The more we know that identity, the more we can walk in it. God wants all His creation to be the way He sees His creation. Jesus came to destroy the mess the devil has helped make and all the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). God’s Will will not be completed until creation is restored to very goodness (Isaiah 65:25, 66:22; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). As we walk through life, it is easy to forget the goodness of all things – even as we stand in the thistles. But God sees us as we can be in Christ – and will be when we accept Him. Remind creation of that as you walk: God is coming to complete it because of His love of it and us. We will all again be very good.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.