Fear No Fear

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

You have destroyed my people by failing to acknowledge me! Because you refuse to acknowledge me, I will reject you as my priests. Because you reject the law of your God, I will reject your descendants.
Hosea 4:6 (emphasis added)

The Hebrew reads closer to ‘My people are destroyed because you reject knowledge – they don’t know me’ and ‘because you have ignored me, I’ll forget to bless your descendants’. We were MEANT to have knowledge of Elohim, pay attention to Him and His point of view, and follow Him along His path which is an abundant life. We’ve lost a lot of that. We let ourselves get easily distracted. We pray, but because it isn’t a prayer of trusting in Jesus, He doesn’t hear us – we’re speaking a foreign language to Him (Proverbs 15:29). Does He ever regret giving us the knowledge? Does He ever regret His blessings? No. But He is not happy with what we do with what we have available to us.

How do you feel when you give a gift and it falls flat? When you make a spread and it only gets nibbled at? When you give something and find it re-gifted back to you in a few years. Probably not that great. Maybe even unappreciated. All that effort, thought, and cost for nothing. You might as well have not done anything. Reading through the Old Covenant, I wonder if that was what Elohim was feeling during parts of Israel’s journey. “Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, Nor does He have compassion on their orphans or their widows; For every one of them is godless and an evildoer, And every mouth is speaking foolishness. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away, And His hand is still stretched out” (Isaiah 9:17). He doesn’t sound pleased. Then I think of the New Covenant. Of today. And I wonder if He isn’t just as displeased with us. I mean, we miss it just as much as they did. Doing it in a different way doesn’t count for much. A miss is a miss. One thing you notice reading through the Word, though, is that Elohim is merciful. In the Old Covenant He preserved a remnant and didn’t punish them a moment longer than they were sentenced. In the New Covenant, He is still upholding us and made a way for us to repent and be washed clean. We get to walk in all the benefits of the Blessing, AND we also get to be corrected. We will never need to wander in the desert forty years unless we CHOOSE to (Numbers 32:13). Instead, we have a WAY to Him open ALL the time. “But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Still, we CAN’T make Him happy while we walk in ways He didn’t mean us to. Always standing in the entrance and never coming to the kitchen. Shivering in wet clothes, and not ever coming to sit by the fire. Holding our umbrella, but not opening it when it rains. We’re like kids who get bundled up against the rain, and then roll around in the snow. Unwise. Not using what we’ve been given in the way it was meant to be used – and complaining when things don’t seem to be working. What good is it to whine about what we aren’t engaging in? Or to put it another way, when will we stop asking for what He has already given us? No one likes nagging. But nagging for something after you’ve given something? That’s a special kind of no thank you.

Thing is though, we won’t know what Adonai’s given us if we don’t get to know Him. That’s like wondering what a generous stranger will give us without ever getting to know them. It’s fine to know someone’s reputation. But they won’t give you anything – even if they’re VERY generous – unless they know you. We tend not to give strangers elaborate gifts. Jesus came for us because He loves us. If we don’t get to know Him and what He’s done, we can’t be saved. That’s acquaintance stuff. After we’re saved, there is a whole LOT more. Salvation is the BEGINNING of the journey, not the destination. He’s not looking for us to say, ‘whew, we’re in’ and then warm a pew for fifty years. He’s looking for the rest of the journey. You have the package. Now unwrap it. Open it. Take the stuff out. Use it as it was meant to be used. Remember, just knowing Him isn’t enough to make Him smile. “Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). We MUST believe He rewards us. I believe my job will pay me, so I work. I believe my family appreciates me, so I look forward to special days. You know what I don’t believe? I don’t believe the government is going to give me a lot of money for no reason, so I don’t look for cheques in the mail. I don’t believe I’m entitled to anything, so I don’t look for special treatment. What we believe factors greatly into how we interact with the world. We need to be aware of that and apply that to Adonai.

The eager expectation that is based in His Word will strengthen as we get to know Him. The more we know Him, the more we become aware of how much He loves us. The more we are aware of His love, the more of His blessings we realise He has for us. Not because we deserve them or have earned them, but because He loves us. Much like how we obey Him not because we have to or because He demands it, but because we love Him. If we’d KNOW Him, we would know how much we have available to us in Jesus. How much freedom. How much healing. How much abundance. How much of Him. They are intimately connected. Our knowledge of Him is directly proportional to how much freedom and blessing we walk in. If we truly want to live, we NEED to KNOW Jesus. Not just His reputation, but Him Himself. As a friend, as our Lord, and as our Saviour. We live when we acknowledge Him. We live when we submit to Him. And when we keep Him in the place that He deserves to be, then He remembers us, our descendants, and we all enjoy the Blessing of Adonai Elohim. Nothing is a better gift than that. One that is regretted by neither us nor Jesus.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Zechariah 11:12-13

“Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, forget it.” So they weighed out my payment—30 pieces of silver. The Lord then said to me, “Throw to the potter that exorbitant sum at which they valued me!” So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the temple of the Lord.” Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. The Law (Exodus 21:32) set the price paid to a master if a servant had been gored by a bull. The Suffering Servant would be betrayed for the price of a servant. “Then one of the twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me to betray him into your hands?” So they set out 30 silver coins for him” (Matthew 26:14-15). “Now when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the 30 silver coins to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!” So Judas threw the silver coins into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:3-5). Jesus suffered and died, having been betrayed for the price of a servant: 30 pieces of silver. 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