Fear No Fear

“The Lord had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them. You shall not serve them or sacrifice to them” (2 Kings 17:35, MEV). God loves us enough to be more than enough for us. We don’t NEED any other gods. In today’s day and age, we have a tendency to think that we don’t do this and this isn’t a worry. How many physical idols do you come across? How many are you asked to bow down to? I would guess none. This is not our culture, at least not in the West. It is more insidious than that. “Therefore put to death the parts of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5, MEV). The West is built on a culture of consumerism. Advertising is designed to get you to covet things so that you’ll buy things. But coveting is idolatry. That is worshipping something. That is putting your longing on something not God. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23, MEV). Stubbornness is like idolatry. It’s putting YOUR wants before what God wants – and then demanding that they stay there. We are certainly a stubborn people. We think what we want and what we think is the most important thing. We build our politics around it. We raise our children around it. We protest, shout, write comments on internet pages, and open our mouths on a near-daily basis to tell what WE think to whomever will listen. Idolatry. Making ourselves our master. This is wrong. This is ungodly. Yet we’ve been trained our whole lives to do it. This is why the battleground is in our minds. That’s where the strongholds are that we need to tear down (2 Corinthians 10:4–5). Idolatry doesn’t need to be a cultural thing. Worshipping fear as entertainment doesn’t need to be the big thing to combat. Those are things to avoid, but the REAL danger is what we have built up in our minds as the way things should be. This is why the Word encourages us to get the Word into us. When we do, we start taking in what the Lord sees and making it our own. We call important what we pay attention to. It’s about time to pay attention to what God says. To get the Word into us on a daily basis and conform to it. To submit to it. To recognise God’s position and bow to Him. He is our LORD. He is our SUPERIOR. He is GOD ALMIGHTY. He knows what is truth. If we listen to Him, we will know it too (Romans 12:2). Turn away from stubbornness of thinking. Turn away from rebelling against what the Word tells us to do. Be satisfied with what you have – even if you’d like to improve your situation. There is a difference between wanting better while being satisfied and coveting. Learn it. Walk on the right side of the line. Look to God as your Source. Listen. Obey. Align your thinking with His. Don’t enjoy fear. Enjoy trusting in Jesus. It’s the wise path.