Fear No Fear

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

“There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears—behold, the silver is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “May Yahweh bless my son!” He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made a carved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Micah. The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim,and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”
(Judges 17:1-6)

“Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control, perseverance; and in perseverance, godliness; and in godliness, brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
(Psalm 44:2-3)

When the judges judged, all was well because people were listening to the men and woman God had raised up to call their attention back to Him. But scattered throughout the narrative (collected in the third part of the overall book, but chronologically spread throughout) is a record of the Israelites weakening their spiritual condition by failing to seek the Lord. This leads to depraved morals, national and private idolatry, corruption of the priesthood, and eventually civil war founded on degeneracy. Much as seeking God calls us into greater and greater moral purity (aligning ourselves with His moral character), rejecting God leads us into greater and greater moral degeneracy. Which of course leads to personal and national failings – which is where we see so many societies and cultures ending up in the historical and archaeological record.

But seeking God leads to a different end. Our trust in Jesus is what gets us saved, placing our feet upon the Way. After that, though, we need to walk out our salvation. We are not passive. We’re not spectators. We are active participants, aligning ourselves with God and letting Him work through us. Planting His Fruit and growing it in the garden of our hearts. Multiplying, producing, and staying humbly obedient to His Will, which is His Word. We become more and more like Him and less and less like the barren and unfruitful beings we were when we were broken. Now we can become more than we are because we are letting Jesus live through us instead of relying on our own thinking or ideals.

Summary

The journey of a disciple of Jesus is one of self-sacrifice. Putting what WE want on the back burner as we put more of His light on what He wants for us and through us. Every day we crucify our flesh, our personal agenda, and we take up Jesus’ agenda. We take up our obedience and humbly submit to the King of the Universe, the Lord of our lives. We let Him work through us. We study, learn, and deepen our trust in Him as we believe what we find in the Word and submit to it. We take this trust and shine as an example to others. We must take these steps every day. We must run our race. We must become less and let Him become more. We strive for consistency. We strive for obedience. And we rely on Him and what He does for us, what He teaches us, and how He corrects us so that we are cooperators with Him in what He wants to do.