Fear No Fear

“But for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist. And there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6, MEV). God loves us enough to be a Father to us. And since we KNOW He is our Father, we KNOW He is a good one. Good fathers don’t let their kids sink or swim. Good fathers don’t leave their kids without support. Good fathers also don’t do everything for their kids. Good fathers teach responsibility. Good fathers correct. Good fathers guide. Good fathers are available. And good fathers love their children. Sacrificing for them. Working behind the scenes in many ways the children never realise – until they become parents themselves. These are all things that good fathers do. They are an example, a help, a shepherd, and a friend (with boundaries). And that’s good HUMAN fathers. Now imagine how good a PERFECT father is. What that perfect father would do. What that perfect father could accomplish. Imagine that. Well, that’s the father we have in God. Perfect. Every time something needs to be done, He’s doing the perfect thing. He doesn’t change what He does based on our performance. Because we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us, our Father interacts with us based on Jesus’ performance because spiritually we ARE Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21) – except without the being God part. This is grace. We get what we didn’t do. We get what we don’t deserve. And He gives it because of His love for us. What WE need to do is receive it. That can be hard. It’s simple, but it isn’t always easy. Because WE see our performance. We know how we struggle and with what. We know where we’ve missed it. We see the faults. We see the past. God sees it all too, but He views it through the cross and that just hits different. Our big thing to do is to get to know Jesus’ love for us so well and so deeply that WE see all of that through the lens of the cross. When we do, we get a picture of who we are as sons and daughters of God. When we do, we get a picture of who we are in Messiah Jesus. When we do, we get a picture of our true identity. We see ourselves as God sees us. As we study the Word, getting a better understanding of God’s moral character, and interact with God through our praise and our prayer, we deepen our relationship. We start to see how Jesus sees us. We start to know ourselves as Jesus knows us. And we start to get to know Him. To be aware of who He is and what He does. What He thinks about us and what His will is. The more we connect the dots that God has drawn for us, the clearer and more detailed our picture of our Father is. We will start to see Him as He is, not as we think He might be. There is a big difference there. We have a GOOD God. He is a GOOD Father. And He will NOT treat us badly. He will treat us like sons and daughters. HIS sons and daughters. We will be part of the family, blessed, loved, and His. The more we see that, the more beautiful our relationship with Him gets. Amen.