Fear No Fear

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

“But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked.
    You have grown fat.
    You have grown thick.
    You have become sleek.
Then he abandoned God who made him,
    and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
They moved him to jealousy with strange gods.
    They provoked him to anger with abominations.
They sacrificed to demons, not God,
    to gods that they didn’t know,
    to new gods that came up recently,
    which your fathers didn’t dread.
Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful,
    and have forgotten God who gave you birth”
(Deuteronomy 32:15-18)

“One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
    one who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city.”
(Proverbs 16:32)

Everyone likes it when we have a lot. We don’t naturally want ‘enough’. We desire excess. This is why God doesn’t give material prosperity before you are rooted in spiritual prosperity (3 John 2) – because we can’t handle physical abundance without being rooted in Him. We get lazy. We start thinking look at what ‘I’ have done. This is the warning God gives the Israelites. When they get fat and lazy – not necessarily physically obese, but full of the good things of the land – they will forget WHY they have them. That they did not EARN them, they were a GIFT from a gracious God. That GOD fought for them, GOD provided for them, GOD blessed them, and GOD gave them the security that they were now enjoying.

If you can control your temper, it is evidence that you can control other things. War heroes have to overcome armies. That’s HARD. But someone who controls their temper has overcome the powerful feelings that came on them from the outside and the urges that came up from the inside. We must RULE over ourselves and what comes on us if we are to be successful (Genesis 4:7). In and of ourselves, this is IMPOSSIBLE. We need JESUS and what HE provides to overcome (John 15:5, 16:33; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Summary

We NEED God if we are going to conquer the evil inclination that we have had from birth. We need HIS nature (2 Corinthians 5:21). We need HIS Fruit to grow in our hearts (Galatians 5:22-23). We need HIS armour so that we can stand on the Word (Ephesians 6:10-18; James 4:7). God doesn’t leave us to grab these things on our own with our own strength. No, God ALWAYS empowers us to do what He calls on us to do. “For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). We have been GIVEN self-control. What we need to do is to USE it. To equip it and to exercise it. Every use makes it deeper and stronger. It is rooted in Him because it is HIS gift to us. When we stay connected to Jesus, we stay connected to what powers His gifts, and we make it easier to walk where HE says we are to walk (Romans 6:4).