Fear No Fear

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

“For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’ Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, my lord’s slave; and let the boy go up with his brothers. For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”“
(Genesis 44:32-34)

“He said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder.’ ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ‘You shall not steal.’ ‘You shall not offer false testimony.’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ And, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’””
(Matthew 19:17-19)

Judah was not a nice man. Neither was Reuben. Or Levi. Or Simon. Murderers. Thieves. Dishonest. Not just violent tempers, but needlessly cruel. Sexually immoral – adultery and incest. Liars. Bitter men. The brothers of Joseph were guilty of all the things the Lord said were to be avoided. And Judah was among the worst in his selfishness and hatred. But here we see him at the end of himself. After decades of living wrong and going through personal loss and trials, he finally is repenting. He finally is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of someone else – his father and youngest brother. Finally, he is willing to give it all up.

Jesus told the young man who FELT he was righteous, that he still was selfish. That there was love of money in his heart. That there was something he put before the Lord. We often have things we put before the Lord. These things are idols. Even coveting something we do not have is idolatry (Colossians 3:5), because we are putting that desire for a THING above our desire for the LORD. We truly need to give up what we are so desperate for and be willing to be desperate for Him alone. It can be a sacrifice. It can be hard. But it is neccessary because without God being first, you won’t ever really get to live the life the God wants for all of us (John 10:10).

Summary

Putting God first is like putting fuel into your vehicle. No matter how great your vehicle is, no matter what it looks like, how comfortable it is, or what it can do, it will NEVER reach its fullest potential without fuel in the engine. We have a wonderful planet and it is full of wonderful things. But we will never reach the full potential of any of it without God as our Source and guiding star. We need to give up on our personal desires and embrace His desires for us. They are ALWAYS greater, better, and superior to our own. They bring us blessing, they enable us to bless others, and they give God glory. They are worship opportunities and service opportunities. They are ABUNDANCE and they are FULL life choices. Real breakthrough comes when we humbly submit to Him.