Fear No Fear

“Yes, they tested God over and over, and provoked the Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 78:41, MEV). God loves us enough to give us the consequences we demand. Sin was never the plan. But Adam rebelled and got the consequence he insisted on. The Israelites were meant to come out of Egypt forty years before they did. Moses got ahead of God and cost them forty years. The Israelites were meant to enter the Promised Land forty years before they actually did. Some of the spies convinced the people they couldn’t do it. They refused to trust God and it cost them forty years in the desert. We cannot stop God’s plan. But we can hinder Him and remove ourselves from the plan. We can keep ourselves from enjoying the benefit of what He has planned. We can refuse to participate. When we do that, He gives us the consequences we’re insisting on. He lets us go our own way and finds someone else who will say yes. Who will obey. Who will listen and DO, instead of listen and say no. It isn’t that God isn’t generous. It isn’t that God isn’t willing to give to us and move us into positions where things will happen. It’s that God gave us free will. We can do it His way, or we can go our own way. It doesn’t mean our lives won’t be good. It does mean that they will not contain the full blessing that God had intended for us to participate in. If we hinder Him, He never comes out the loser. If we hinder Him, it is always ourselves that come out short. He loves us. He wants the best for us. He wants us to partner with Him. He wants us to prosper in our salvation in the fullness of what that means (3 John 2). But He isn’t a dictator. He isn’t FORCING us. He’s telling us the TRUTH. He is pointing out where the blessing is and where the anointing is and He is letting US choose whether or not we’re going to partake in them. Whether we are going to seek Him. Whether we are going to listen to Him. Whether we are going to believe Him. Whether we are going to obey Him. Whether we are going to trust in His process. The ball is gorgeous and wonderful, full of mercy and grace; but it is in OUR court. It is in OUR hands. Are we going to choose to play it? To follow Him? To humbly submit and do it His way, in His time? Or are we going to insist on our own way? Our own time? God’s plans won’t stop. They won’t be thwarted. He wants you to cooperate with Him. But it is up to us whether we are going to align with Him or not. It is OUR choice. Every time.