Rightsizing fear

Dec 23

Is 40:9-10 - Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

In the midst of difficult and captivity as the Babylonian captivity would be, there is good news for all which removes any fear. The cure for this fear is that God will come with might and His arm rules. He will provide reward and justice for all people. How many fears would be relieved if we would just proclaim, “Behold our God!” in all situations. To truly size him up against the fears, the anxieties and the discourgement that we may feel at any moment, I believe, would do wonders for our fears. What is there to fear next to an almighty, sovereign, good and faithful God?

Dt 28:58-60 - If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.

The warning is clear. And the opposite truth is also clear: Follow the words of the law and revere the glorious and awesome God and He will bless you. Size up our God and it will help you rightsize your fears.

Who is stronger?

Dec 22

Is 37:5-7 - When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ”

Who is stronger than the Lord? King Hezekiah is warned not to be afraid because of words and the reason he is not to be afraid is because God will send rumor and will personally see that the king and his men do not live. The answer to all our fears are God’s words. How foolish I am when I face fears and do not go to God’s word to find the remedy. There is nothing to fear but God because he is in control of everything.

Dt 25:17-19 - Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

Those who do no fear God sin ruthlessly against God and His people. God will act in vengeance, therefore we need not be afraid of unfulfilled injustice. Vengeance is mine says the Lord, and in this case the Israelites were going to be the ones to blot out the memory of these evil men forever. Truly, God is in control.

fearfully at peace

Dec 21

Is 35:3-4 - Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

Fear produces anxiety. The answer to anxiety is that God will come and He will save us. It is promise that we can bank on. Therefore we are to strengthen our hands and our knees and walk confidently in the power of our God. The answer to our fears is God. As Php 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Dt 17:19 - It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees

Reverence leads to obedience. Simple as that.

12 stones of faith

December 20, 2007

Is 10:24-27 - Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”

God’s encouragement to the Israelites really shows the absolute power of the Lord God Almighty. He can do what He wants, when He wants, how He wants. It provides great perspective that His timing is always His timing and His hand is never too short in accomplishing what he desires to accomplish. We can believe Him when he tells us not to fear. Nothing happens apart from His will.

Jos 4:19-24 - On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

The 12 stones are reminders of God’s power to part the Jordan River so that the Israelites could walk through them. The reason God commanded these stones to be put in the water was so that they would know the Lord is powerful and learn to fear the Lord. They were to learn to fear God so that will not fear anything else that they were about to accomplish. They would need the fear of God to not only keep from sin, but also to defeat the many enemies that they were about to accomplish Just as God reminds the Israelites in the first passage about Egypt and Midian to show his strength, he orders these rocks to remind them in the future about what God had done in the past. When we remember and act on God’s accomplishment in the past, we will be victorious and fruitful in the present. When God’s accomplishments in the past produce fear, we will live fearless in the present.

Faith and Fear

December 19, 2007

Is 7:3-4,9b - And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah… If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

The context of this passage is regarding God’s message to Ahaz, in that the two invading kings will not prevail. It is a practical message for us that in times of fear, we are to be careful that we do not do anything or say anything out of fear, that we quiet our hearts and our souls in His goodness and faithfulness, and not allow our hearts to be faint, but to grow strong in courage and trust. The last line is worth gold to our lives if we heed it. Faith will allow us to remain firm in our times of fear, but without faith, we will not be firm at all.

Dt 17:19-20 - It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

All the rules for a king boiled down to this, “Remember who is the true King.” This is a great parallel to the passage for Ahaz because both are commands to trust in the true King to lead and save you. This passage is a stipulation of how Israelites are to choose their kings. Most of all, they are to fear God and follow carefully all the commands of God. They are not above their fellow Israelities and they are not to turn to the left or right. They are commanded to not let pride diminish your fear of God.

Sleep Well

December 18, 2007

Pr 3:24-26 - If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

My daughter has this verse written out and put above her bed. This verse is so poignant because when we are afraid, sleep is the first thing to go. We are either are afraid while we sleep or we can’t sleep because we are fearing something. Sleep signifies peace and rest. Fearful lives don’t sleep well. Just like yesterday’s passage, I am not afraid of bad news or sudden disaster. We are not afraid of accidents because we know that God is in control of everything. God is our confidence in good and in bad. In his goodness, we rest.

Dt 6:24-25 - The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

The fear of God leads to obedience which leads to prosperity. Though prosperity is an old testament concept, I think it still serves true for us that fearing God leads to a fearless life. The only thing we need to be careful of is to obey all the laws of the Lord our God.

Delightfully fearing

December 17, 2007

Ps 112:7-8 - He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.

What a striking verse. This is such an indictment on our culture and a contradiction in most of our lives. Bad news is something we are always afraid of as it is the unknown that is right around the corner. When we are so confident in our fear of the sovereignty and goodness of God, our fear of the bad news will dissapiate for it is the Lord that we trust. When we trust in the Lord, our heart is steady and we will not be afraid. He expects victory in the Lord. Oh to live a life that isn’t afraid of the uknown, but that trusts in the goodness and sovereignty of God.

Ps 112:1 - Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands.

This verse is from the same Psalm and really sets up this Psalm well. When we fear God, we won’t fear man. Moreover, when we fear God, we will find great delight not only in His commands, but also in the peace and joy that comes from His word.