Fear No Fear

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

“Then Yahweh’s Spirit came on Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph, in the middle of the assembly; and he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat. Yahweh says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed because of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow, go down against them. Behold, they are coming up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed. Go out against them tomorrow, for Yahweh is with you.’” Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before Yahweh, worshiping Yahweh. The Levites, of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites, stood up to praise Yahweh, the God of Israel, with an exceedingly loud voice. They rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. As they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in Yahweh your God, so you will be established! Believe his prophets, so you will prosper.” When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to Yahweh and give praise in holy array as they go out before the army, and say, “Give thanks to Yahweh, for his loving kindness endures forever.””
(2 Chronicles 20:14-21)

“Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised,
    in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
    is Mount Zion, on the north sides,
    the city of the great King.
God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge.
For, behold, the kings assembled themselves,
    they passed by together.
They saw it, then they were amazed.
    They were dismayed.
    They hurried away.
Trembling took hold of them there,
    pain, as of a woman in travail.
With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.
As we have heard, so we have seen,
    in the city of Yahweh of Armies, in the city of our God.
God will establish it forever. ”
(Psalm 48:1-8)

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, even as also with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and evil men; for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you both do and will do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and into the perseverance of Christ.”
(2 Thessalonians 3:1-5)

A proof of trust in God is worship. Faithful worship when in trouble and faithful worship when not in trouble. It was not God’s idea to send the singers first. It was the idea of the people of Israel. They chose to send their worshippers before their soldiers. They KNEW that without God, they were toast. They could not save themselves. Only GOD could save them. The king had taken their petition before God, laid it all out, and left it in God’s hands. Since they were trusting in Him, the only thing left was to live it. The best way to live our trust is to worship Him – no matter what the circumstances looked like. They only had God’s word that things were going to work out. They chose to believe and then act like they believed.

God could have used them. He had used the Israelites before. Favoured their efforts and blessed their strength beyond what they could normally do. But this time, He didn’t. This time, He gave them a lesson in trust. That their trust in Him was not dependent on their efforts. That He could move in ways they couldn’t even imagine. If they were willing to put their trust in what He said and believe He could do it – then they would see that nothing was impossible for them. Just like in the days of their deliverance from Egypt, God could move the world itself to provide for them. They only needed to trust in Him.

Paul prayed earnestly for the believers in Thessaloniki. And exhorted them to pray for him as well. Because not everyone in the world trusts in God. Not everyone is willing to hear the Lord and submit to what they hear. There are those who because of their own inner shame and own guilt when faced with the truth of Almighty God, seek to destroy the messengers – as if that would make the message go away. But like at every point in human history, we only need to put our trust in God. He is trustworthy. It isn’t about whether a sacrifice will be made. It isn’t about whether we will endure hardship or pain. It is about whether we trust that God will move for the best – from His point of view. Paul was able to rejoice and be JOYFUL while in prison and persecuted. He suffered a lot, and called it nothing in comparison to the glory of God in his life. Like the Israelites in the past, Paul was exhorting the believers (including us) to trust in God no matter what was happening and to discover the truth it is NEVER a disappointment.

Summary

We don’t like pain or suffering or lack. No one does. But Jesus warned us that persecution because we followed Him would come. Sometimes that means real discomfort, jail, and occasionally death – even today. But our circumstances do not determine our joy. We can be up against overwhelming odds and be totally and completely delivered. We can be in a bad position and enduring much and still be joyful. If we truly trust in God, our worship will not waver. If we think we’re going to waver, our worship can keep our eyes on God. When we wake up, if we’re not ‘feeling’ thankful, we can worship our way into Joy and Thanksgiving. Worship is a tool that we have to move the reality of our spirit into the reality of our physical body. Circumstances don’t matter. We can choose to trust and we can choose to worship so that we can see the evidence of that trust each and every day.