Fear No Fear

“Thus says the Lord to this people: Even so they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore, the Lord does not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity and punish their sins” (Jeremiah 14:10, MEV). God loves us enough to tell us the truth, but He also loves us enough not to move His timeline. As a species, humanity had learned to love to wander away from God. What a tragedy. The One who has peace, love, understanding, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and grace is the One we have learned to love to wander away from. For what? Some physical pleasure. Some mental shenanigans. And material wealth – regardless of what form it takes. Essentially, we have learned to love the physicality of the world and to ignore the spirituality of it. Well, at least as it relates to Yahweh God Almighty. We’re all in for supernatural spirituality. Man-made gods and goddesses. Occult trappings and ‘unexplained phenomena’. We seem to celebrate those. But when it comes to the One True God, we like to travel in other directions. We enter the tall grass and put ourselves at the mercy of the predators that live there. We leave the path He illuminates and travel off into the distance. We ignore what He says is right and good and just, and go with whatever we think at any given time – which is always based on whatever keeps us from feeling shame, discomfort, or other negatives. This is humanity’s default setting. It is a direct result of the Fall and the application of our free will without thinking of the consequences. It is our physical heritage. But God has offered us a spiritual heritage. He has offered us the Way back to Him. He has offered us entry into His family as His children with His inheritance. When we accept salvation, we accept that. But do we stay where He says to stay? Or do we wander? In small ways, perhaps leading to big ways? Do we let go of the habits we should hold onto? Do we let our eyes and ears consume content that isn’t godly? Maybe it isn’t the worst of the worst, but does it promote the good things the Lord offers us? Or does it encourage small slides, small steps, and broken thinking? We always need to be on our guard to encourage and build up what He says is good, and avoid building up what He says is bad. We won’t be missing out. Not really. There is SO MUCH GOOD in this world. So much appropriate content, hobbies, activities, entertainment, education, relationships, and everything else you could think of. If we restrain our wandering and learn to love what He loves, we won’t be bored. We won’t feel like we’re missing out. We won’t be lonely. We’ll be satisfied, happy, and full of His joy and peace. Lean into the Lord. Don’t wander. Retrain your mind to think on Him and align with His point of view. You won’t regret it. And you’ll be hand in hand with your loving Father, your doting husband, and your guide and teacher.