Fear No Fear

“He said, “Go and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind split the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake came, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire came, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, a still, small voice” (1 Kings 19:11–12, MEV). God loves us enough to be stern with us, and He loves us enough not to force us. God speaks to us. SPEAKS. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t demand. He can be stern. He can be serious. He can lay it out black and white. He can ask. He can tell us (like a parent who says ‘because I said so’). He doesn’t owe us an explanation. He doesn’t owe us the why of it. He can speak and we are to obey. It is the expectation and our good and perfect service to Him, our God and Lord and Saviour. God is God, so He is to be obeyed. And since He is to be obeyed, He doesn’t shout and scream and demand or FORCE us. He tells us what is what, and WE are left to choose to obey Him or not. To listen to Him or not. To conform to His will or not. The choice is always ours. God could have prevented Adam from eating the Fruit. God could have not put the tree in the garden in the first place. But if He hadn’t drawn a boundary and given us the opportunity to (a) obey Him and (b) offer to Him something we chose to leave as His alone; He would have had robots. Not friends and true worshippers. Automatons. Living AI. Useless for fellowship. Pointless to show His glory to. Not worth a sacrifice. God wanted us to have free will so that WE could understand love. So that we could love Him and trust Him and believe Him. None of that is possible if you don’t have free will. A slave doesn’t love their master. Not when they have no choice over anything in their lives. Not when they can’t take a breath without permission. Not when they are bound to another’s will. God doesn’t want that. He wants love. He wants obedience. Those are choices. Those are choices that we can make or can reject. God speaks to us, but God doesn’t force us. Which makes our choice of Him all the sweeter. Which makes the BLESSING all the greater. Which makes His willingness to parent us all the more precious and appreciated. What a GOOD God!