Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.
Psalm 147:3 (emphasis added)

This is a Messianic verse. This was something that Elohim did. This would also be an office of Messiah. Isaiah expounds on it. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has chosen me. He has commissioned me to encourage the poor, to help the brokenhearted, to decree the release of captives and the freeing of prisoners, to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor, the day when our God will seek vengeance, to console all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2). Jesus quoted them in Luke 4:18, except He left out the second half since it referred to His return as Conquering King not His current role (at the time) of Suffering Servant. One of the hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry was the healing of the broken hearted. That ministry continues today and it is just as needed.

It is a stereotype that the holidays are rife with broken hearts. Either because of the end of a relationship or that you can’t find anyone who ‘clicks’. Because of the loss of a loved one, or loss of a job, or friends you’ve grown apart from. Maybe because of what happened to you as a child or didn’t happen to you. It might even be from having to work or go to school and not get to be around the people you love. This is played up in the entertainment industry, but the stereotype is an enduring one because it is based on facts. The Holiday Blues are suffered by those with and without mental health issues. During holiday seasons (several of which are clumped at the end and beginning of the year – winter) they experience feelings of loneliness, anxiety or depression, sadness, and even unfulfilled expectations. It can go beyond holiday seasons, of course, but it is most often felt during that time. We can dismiss part of it as a blowback from the consumerism that breeds television commercials, programs, and other advertising promoting a high-level holiday experience in order to sell products, which intentionally or not, sets such a high bar of perfection that people crash and burn trying to achieve it. But the majority of brokenheartedness is more than failed expectations. It is a deep pain of loss that no amount of eggnog and wrapping paper can fill.

Jesus came to heal that. During the holidays and the rest of the year too. In Him, it can be healed. “Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. In him you also were circumcised—not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:6-12). If we maintain our trust in Jesus – the same kind of trust we had when we received salvation – we can be healed of our brokenheartedness. He is all the fullness of deity. Jesus IS Elohim (John 10:30). And through Jesus, we were saved and raised with Him through our trust. He raised us with the power of Ruach HaKodesh who raised Jesus from the dead. That’s what is inside us. The fullness of deity and raising from the dead power. One of the things Jesus did with that was to spiritually circumcise us. He cut off the sinful part and tossed it away (Psalm 103:12). He got rid of the tumour that was causing everything to go wrong.

That’s great news. We’re not sinners! He got rid of that. He cut it off. It is not part of us anymore. “Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin because God’s seed resides in them, and thus they are not able to sin because they have been fathered by God” (1 John 3:9). If Jesus could cut off and remove something so much a part of human DNA through Adam, then how easy would it be for Jesus to remove a memory? Bitterness? Pain? Jesus can take that faded, sepia-toned memory that is torn, distorted, and causing you pain. Once He has it, he can colourise it, bring back its vividness, but without the pain, anxiety, and negative feelings. He can cleanse it just like He cleanses us. We do NOT need to be slaves of our memories. They do not need to haunt us and encourage us to go to a place without trust.

When we have trust in Jesus, we don’t have to put up with negative feelings or memories. They don’t have to be ours. One of the coping mechanism strategies recommended for holiday blues or broken hearts is to find other activities that bring us joy. To find a replacement. Well, that is a patch to distract us until the pain is less intense. Jesus doesn’t do that. He removes the bad and replaces it with something good (James 1:17). He takes our broken memories and Mactacs new things into their place. He doesn’t leave us hurting. He doesn’t make us struggle to deal with it. He pushes us to maintain and deepen our relationship with Him. We don’t need dry spells. We don’t need desert places. Not the way WE think of them. When the Israelites were in the desert they were TOTALLY cared for. They were guided (Exodus 13:21). They were provided for (Exodus 16:4-8). Their clothes didn’t even wear out (Deuteronomy 20:5). That’s SOME taking care. It says in Psalm 105:37 that the entire nation of Israel coming out of Egypt included not a single infirm person. It’s not naturally possible without divine intervention. Not even a little. Not with THAT many people (Exodus 12:37-38 puts it at 600,000 men plus women and children – multiple children was considered something to strive for – plus the mixed multitude of Gentiles. That can be from 1.2 to 6 million people, opinions are divided). Adonai doesn’t play favourites (Acts 10:34). If we’re willing to be as dependent on Him as they were, as focused as they were, and as walking where He guided as they were, we can enjoy it too. They left Egypt right after the first time they partook of Passover. It isn’t off the mark to say that when they did and left, their trust in Yahweh enabled them to receive a mass healing. Well, we have the same ceremonial re-focus on Adonai ourselves: Communion (Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26! Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). There is no reason to partake of the table and not expect to walk away whole, because the whole thing is remembering what Jesus accomplished (by His stripes, bruises, and wounds we WERE healed – Matthew 8:16-17; 1 Peter 2:24) and reaffirming our trust that He has resurrected us with Himself into New Life as New Creations (Galatians 3:26-29; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

If Jesus suffered and died to renew us, why hang onto old and broken thinking or memories that we don’t really want anyway? It’s like hanging onto broken trash when we’re being offered a brand new replacement. It would be silly to hang onto a broken lamp missing bulbs, having only half the shade, with some of the finish ribbed off, and sporting a frayed plug. It would be sillier if someone was offering us a brand new lamp for free as a replacement. Sentimental value can go a long way, but if the broken lamp held nothing but painful memories then it would be triply foolish to keep it in the face of that offer. Well, that’s the offer Jesus makes us every day of our lives. As each individual thing comes up, He offers renewal. How much we get renewed is limited only on our side. He wants to renew EVERYTHING. If we’ll lay it down, correct our thinking by looking at it through the Word, submit to what we see and hear, and then turn from the wrong thinking in every way by HIS power (2 Corinthians 12:9); we can be renewed and reborn in Him.

Remember who it is that is in you. The Creator of the Universe who upholds ALL things in His hands (Hebrews 1:3). Remember what He did for you when He spiritually circumcised your sin off of you (1 John 1:9). Remember who YOU are in HIM (2 Corinthians 5:21). There is nothing that cannot be renewed, removed, renovated, and restored in Jesus, by Jesus, through Jesus, and for the Glory of the Father – because what a testimony to a heart once broken being pristine and fully, wholly functional! If you have cracks in your mental, emotional ticker, let the repairer of all repairers at it. He can handle the job, and you will NEVER have to deal with that brokenness again. Drop the blues and embrace the yellows (yellow if often associated with JOY).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Zechariah 2:10-13

“Sing out and be happy, Zion my daughter! For look, I have come; I will settle in your midst,” says the Lord. “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on the day of salvation, and they will also be my people. Indeed, I will settle in the midst of you all. Then you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sent me to you. The Lord will take possession of Judah as his portion in the holy land and he will choose Jerusalem once again. Be silent in the Lord’s presence, all people everywhere, for he is being moved to action in his holy dwelling place.”” Messiah would be the Lamb of the Throne. Being the Suffering Servant would enable Messiah to take His place as the Lamb of the Throne, taking possession as the Conquering King of the holy land and Jerusalem. “Then I heard every creature—in heaven, on earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all that is in them—singing: “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be praise, honor, glory, and ruling power forever and ever!”” (Revelation 5:13). “Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given” (Revelation 6:9). “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their grandeur into it” (Revelation 21:24). Jesus was the Suffering Servant. Jesus was sat down at the right hand of the Father. Jesus will return as the Conquering King. Jesus IS the Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b