Fear No Fear

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

“He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.” I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.” So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and Yahweh’s angel was standing by. Yahweh’s angel solemnly assured Joshua, saying, “Yahweh of Armies says: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will follow my instructions, then you also shall judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you a place of access among these who stand by. Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign; for, behold, I will bring out my servant, the Branch. For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua: on one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’””
(Zechariah 3:1-10)

“Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my Good News and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret through long ages, but now is revealed, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known for obedience of faith to all the nations; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.”
(Romans 14:22-26)

The people hadn’t done what they were supposed to. They’d let themselves get sidetracked. They’d been attacked and had fallen under that attack. God wasn’t going to leave them there. God wasn’t done with them. God wasn’t willing to let anyone take His children. Instead, God was willing to replace their clothes, to refresh their bodies, to restore their place. God was willing to turn it all around. And it all hinged on what the people chose. What they were willing to do. Were they willing to put what they had done and suffered behind them in order to walk in obedience? Were they willing to look forward without denying the past and work to keep their feet going the right way? Were they willing to let God do the work? Would they put Him first and follow Him and accept His correction as well as His blessing? Would they be obedient?

The church has the same choice. Everything that isn’t based on trusting in God is sin. Everything. If the motivation and foundation of whatever we think on (dwelling vs stray or errant thoughts coming at us), say, and do isn’t God and the goodness of God manifested in our trusting in Him, then we are putting our selves first and that is sin. There are only two ways to go. God’s way or rebellion. Holy Spirit convicts us ONLY of not trusting in Jesus. One of His whole missions is to show us how we could be trusting in Jesus for that thing right now. It doesn’t matter if it is a big thing, a hobby, or a chore. We can bring EVERYTHING to the cross and give it to Jesus. God can transform the ordinary into an opportunity to give Him glory. It seems silly, but it is transformational. It makes everything good and new and His. The struggle is to keep that as our motivation. To keep checking ourselves. To examine everything to make sure we are doing it right. He will give us the strength, but we have to do the thing.

Summary

Everything is an opportunity for worship if we’ll let it be. Everything can be given to and taken from the Lord. Everything. It can take the making of a snack into an act of loving service. It can take intimacy with our spouses from simple passion to an expression of love modelling the intimacy of our creator. It can take going to work and let it be an expression of our love for God through our doing the best we can in every situation. Everything can be founded on our trust in God regardless of what we are doing and who we are doing it with – provided it accords with the moral character of God. We have the Word to compare our lives to. We have Holy Spirit who constantly speaks to us. We have our prayers and our worship to align ourselves with Him in order to hear Him better. We have a relationship that can be all-encompassing. A relationship based on our trust in God. A life lived in the abundance of the fullness of the love of Jesus for us.