Fear No Fear

“His master answered, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not winnowed. Then you ought to have given my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest” (Matthew 25:26-27, MEV). God loves us enough to give us a way to succeed even when we have a totally wrong idea of who He is. That is grace. Getting what we haven’t earned. In this parable, this servant had been given money. But he had a totally wrong idea of who his master was. He saw him as a smiter. A cheat and a harsh man. That scared him, so he did nothing. He COULD have put the money in the bank and earned interest. He did nothing. He COULD have put aside his fear and done something with the money to grow it like the others did. He did nothing. His master pointed out that even the passive interest, which would have taken almost no effort from him (he had to put it in the bank and that’s it) would have been a success. He did nothing. There is a lot in the Word about how we should be living. There is a lot in the Word about how we can make it happen. Some of it is active. Things we choose to do, choose to say, and not to do and say. Some of it is passive. It is resting in Jesus. Choosing to trust Him by handing Him the reins. Letting Him call the shots. Our part is simple obedience. The thing is, we have ways to succeed even when we have a wrong idea of who God is. When we’ve missed it. When we’ve chosen to complicate the Word, take things out of context, and put our human ideas on top of what God has said. Even then, we can succeed if we’ll just trust in Him. There is always something we can do. We don’t even need to leave our house. We don’t even need to interact with other human beings. We could pray. It is a truth that if that is all we do we will be falling FAR SHORT of what we SHOULD be doing. We are not meant to be in a bubble. We are not meant to be hermits. We are not meant to ignore other people. But if all we can do out of our fear that God will smite us is pray for others, then that will at least be a success of some kind. God is ALWAYS with us. He is there showing you His character in the Word. His TRUE character. Love. Mercy. Grace. Goodness. Kindness. Patience. It’s all there. He encourages us, corrects us, guides us, teaches us, empowers us, equips us. There is NOTHING He doesn’t do for us to set us up for real success. When we miss it. When we let our fear get in the way. When we let our wrong ideas get in the way. There is STILL a way for us to succeed even just a little. God always wants to see us use what He’s given us. Even if we’re missing it and doing the bare minimum. He’s still there. He’s telling us how to succeed in that small way at the same time He’s speaking to our wrong thinking and correcting us so that we can succeed in Him in a big way. God is always guiding and correcting us. Take the correction. Take the guidance. Don’t wait until things are measured up at the end. Choose to rest in Jesus. Give Him the reins. Listen. Obey. Succeed in Him. You can go from bare minimum to well done, good and faithful servant. And who doesn’t want to hear that?