Fear No Fear

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

“Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion!
    Shout, daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King comes to you!
    He is righteous, and having salvation;
    lowly, and riding on a donkey,
    even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the horse from Jerusalem.
The battle bow will be cut off;
    and he will speak peace to the nations.
His dominion will be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
(Zechariah 9:9-10)

“For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent in that which is evil. And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. . . 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 16:19-20, 25-27)
_{*some translations place 16:25-27 at the end of chapter 14 and number them 14:24-26}

God was providing them everything that they would need. He would save them from their enemies. He would shepherd them. He would restore their fortunes. He would save them. He would do all of that, but they had a task. They had to believe Him and choose to trust Him. They had to choose to return to Him and be obedient. To accept that things worked how He said they worked when they relied on Him to work it. When they worshipped Him alone. When they obeyed what He had commanded them to. When He was their Source for everything. When they choose to trust in Him and live how He told them to, they would get all the benefits of righteous living. In these prophecies, God spoke to them as His chosen nation and people, but also to the wider world because Messiah was coming for everyone and everything.

Trust-grounded obedience is the whole theme of Romans. It is the foundation of every covenant with God. It is the basis for our whole lives in and with Jesus. Trust in God is the only way in which we please God (Hebrews 11:6). When God makes promises to us, He is making promises to His obedient children. If we are rebelling against Him, we’re throwing a fit. A tantrum. We’re screaming and slamming doors and throwing ourselves on the floor to kick and wail. We aren’t looking to Him. We’re not taking what He’s offering. We’re not interacting with Him. If we’re running out of His yard and leaving the blessing zone and insisting on doing everything our own way, for our own pleasure, and for our own glory, we are going to miss out on what He has because we’ve run away from where it is. Trusting God is about believing Him and doing what He says is good and right where He says to and how He says to because He said so. When we do that, we are in the right place at the right time surrounded by the right people to do, say, and have all the things that God says are ours. Trusting Him unlocks our ability to receive from Him. It’s how we got saved. It how we get everything.

Summary

Half the battle is realizing God has things for us. The other half is opening our hands to accept it. Not in greed. In worship. Choosing to submit to Him. Choosing to receive from Him what works in the way He says it does. We’re not taking things and trying to make them work our way. We’re not shoving square pegs into round holes. We are to take what God offers and use it how He says to use it. Things work how God says they work. He designed them. He knows them and He knows us. We need to learn more about Him so that we’ll trust Him. So that we’ll receive from Him. So that we won’t run away or choose to live according to what WE say is right and good. So that we will remain trusting in Him, believing what He says, and doing what He says is right and good. We can’t receive what we don’t believe. We can’t believe if we don’t trust Him. Trust in Him is the foundation for our relationship with Him.