Fear No Fear

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, MEV). God loves us enough to encourage us as He corrects, guides, and teaches us. God never says ‘there, there’ and walk away. He gives us real help. He gives us real rest. All we need to do is avail ourselves of it. God is right there hand in hand if we stay beside Him. If we keep from wandering. From seeking band-aids from the world. From running around to everything that soothes or at least masks the pain. If we will turn to Him, rely on Him, and let Him be our Lord as well as our Saviour, we will experience real rest. Real blessing. Real relief. There is nothing like it. Jesus WANTS to carry our burdens (1 Peter 5:7). Jesus didn’t come so that we would struggle. Jesus didn’t overcome the world so that we would slog through the muck and mire. Jesus came to give us a safe place to live and worship. Jesus came to give us victory. Jesus overcame His entire life from His first to His last breath. In Him we can do the same. We’re meant to do the same. It doesn’t mean the circumstances disappear. It means our perspective on the circumstances changes from in the mess to being above the mess. To get HIS perspective on it. Struggle? Suffering? Fierce effort? They’re only for a moment. A brief spark. The security of His presence? The trust that He is doing what He said He would do? The steadfastness of His promises? The belief where hopeful expectation lives? Those don’t pass away. We know that we know that we know. It doesn’t matter what anyone else sees. It doesn’t matter what we see. The trust we have in the security and faithfulness of His Word trumps everything. There is serious peace to be had when you know that Jesus is on the case. That He is doing the heavy lifting. That all we need to do is remain in Him, trust Him, believe what He says, and obey what He says. It takes all the hard out of it. It takes all the unknown out of it. It gives us something to rely on. The anxiety dies. Peace descends. Trust Him.