Fear No Fear

“Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:23-24, MEV). Jesus thought about us a LOT. We were what was on His mind first thing. What He does, is love us so that we can love. And He thinks about us, so that we can think about Him. He enables us to return to Him the love and time He invests in us. He does this because He loves us. He does this because loving has a HUGE benefit for US. God could have simply given us a list of things that He says aren’t good for us or that are bad. A lot of people read the bible like that. Arbitrary do and do not commands that they believe expose the viciousness and narcissistic nature of God. But that isn’t what He did at all. He wrote the bible to show us His moral character and His nature. We see the GOODNESS of God, all the positives, all the blessings, all the best things are right there forming who He IS – and that’s just the stuff we can grasp. Then He tells the narrative of how we have the choice to engage with Him or not. He shows us how we can cooperate with Him or not. He explains the benefits to US of aligning ourselves to Him. Basically, that He created us to be like Him and to grow ever-more like Him as we go. That any other path doesn’t lead to the same place. That nothing but being like Him will ever render to us the benefits of being like Him. The entire bible, from cover to cover, is an explanation of God’s love language and detailed instructions so that we can learn to speak it as well as He does. The bible is a manual for communication. Without communication we cannot have a relationship. Without a relationship we will be forever observers and never participators. God didn’t create us to watch us. God created us to INTERACT with us. He fell in love with us and He wants us to fall in love with Him. He doesn’t FORCE us. He isn’t TOXIC. He shows us the benefits, He explains the good things, and He isn’t shy about letting us know how He feels about us. Then He lets US make our own decision. He lets US choose. He lets us LOVE.