Fear No Fear

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

“Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Let’s arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.”“
(Genesis 35:2-3)

“ He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand. ”
(Matthew 13:11-13)

God doesn’t play favourites (Romans 2:11), but we do and He lets us. We have a choice. We can chase Him for miracles, signs, and wonders; or we can seek His face – seek a real relationship. The crowds were coming for the miracles, but they weren’t paying attention to His words. It wasn’t always like that. In the beginning they came for the words and then stayed for the miracles. But there was a shift. There was a looking for the wonders. There was a marvelling for the signs. There was a wanting to see the miracles happening. And the words were pushed to the background. As soon as they chose the THINGS over the WORD, Jesus started speaking in parables. Those who cared about the words had something to chew on. Something to get into. Something to study and learn from. The others? They chose to turn away from the lessons, so the lessons were hidden from them.

Easu and Jacob were brothers. Twins. Same father. Same mother. Same opportunities. But Esau turned away. He didn’t care about responsibilities. He didn’t care about position. He leaned into his flesh. He didn’t honour his parents. He just didn’t CARE. He only cared about inheritance. The THINGS. God still honoured Esau’s FATHER. He still held to the promises to Esau’s GRANDFATHER. But Esau earned no favour of his own. He chose to reject the better things and leaned into the natural things alone. But Jacob chose God. He listened. He obeyed. And he encouraged his whole household to follow him. He didn’t do it perfectly. He didn’t follow perfectly. He didn’t teach it to his kids perfectly. But he DID seek. And he WAS rewarded.

Summary

God doesn’t keep good things from us. He offers them in Jesus. He offers them through Holy Spirit. But in order to RECEIVE them, we need to lean into Him. We need to seek Him. We need to follow what He says. It isn’t about restriction, it’s about the true freedom that only comes with obedience. But it is OUR choice. We can seek Him like a precious pearl in a field, or we can ignore it and go our own way. His way is peace and abundance in the Kingdom. Our way is a pale imitation. But it is OUR choice. Seek Him, and everything else follows.