Fear No Fear

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

“

“Hear, my people, and I will speak.
    Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices.
    Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I have no need for a bull from your stall,
    nor male goats from your pens.
For every animal of the forest is mine,
    and the livestock on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the mountains.
    The wild animals of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Will I eat the meat of bulls,
    or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
    Pay your vows to the Most High.
Call on me in the day of trouble.
    I will deliver you, and you will honor me.””
(Psalm 50:7-15)

When you abandon God’s standards, His moral character, His point of view; life breaks down and disintegrates on every level. Consequences flow like a tide and soon wash over you. It happened to Israel again and again as a nation and as individuals. It wasn’t enough to inquire of God. They had to OBEY Him. Not only doing WHAT He said to do, but HOW He said to do it. To trust Him totally. Judges is a record of imperfect to terrible obedience. And they get what they sow. Because God was merciful, He raised up judges – people as unqualified as you and me – to show His goodness, to show His grace, and to rescue His people. But it ONLY happened when the people turned their hearts toward Him. They were not under a king at that time, but they SHOULD have been submitted under God as He had told them again and again throughout the Law. If they would seek HIM, they would FIND Him. If they would SUBMIT to Him, they would stay in the BLESSING zone. If they kept Him in his place and loved Him from their hearts, they would not step wrong because He would be there to correct them as they inquired of Him. If they did more than just go through the motions of sacrifices and offerings, but truly worship Him; they would ‘get’ it. They would realise that the sacrifices came from the worship, the sacrifices were not in and of themselves the worship.

If all we do is sacrifice our finances (tithes and offerings) or our possessions (caring for the poor, the orphans, and the widows), then our ‘worship’ is futile. Those are actions that come out of our trust in and worshipping of God. They are NOT in and of themselves the END of worship. They are PART of it, not ALL of it. They should be the external signs of worship coming out of a heart of worship, thanksgiving, and honouring God – reverencing Him. Worship is our hearts full of gratitude for His love for us. The love that kicks everything off and enables us to do what He does. To be like Him, to obey Him, to reverence Him, and to truly worship Him from our hearts on up to the external signs of our love (James 2:22; Romans 3:28).

Summary

“Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him” (Psalm 50:23). We need to focus on GOD’s point of view, and not ours. The Word helps us do that. The Word helps us focus on Him because it is a record of His moral character, His glory, and His mighty works. We see His faithfulness. We see His reliability. We see all that we need to see so that we can choose to believe. To learn about Jesus’ love and realise all the GOOD THINGS God intends for us – things we can walk in when we walk in obedience to Him and His Word. It isn’t about THINGS. It is about OBEDIENCE as a demonstration of our love for Him. It’s a NATURAL extension of that love. When we find ourselves choosing to rebel, choosing not to trust in Jesus, choosing to sin; we need to find out why we didn’t believe in and trust in the love Jesus had for us in that moment. We need to find out what He thought and then align ourselves with Him through true repentance (Romans 12:2). If we love Him, we WILL find ourselves obeying Him (John 14:15). Never stop seeking knowledge of His love so that you can return it in kind (Ephesians 3:14-19).