Fear

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.  – John Newton, Olney Hymns

Peace, trust and love are the effect of Jesus not fear, anger and hate.

More Deeply Into the World

“When we follow Jesus, we follow Him, not away from the world, but more deeply into the world.

When we follow Jesus, He leads us deeper into the world; not away from it. This initially confuses most of us, because we thought we were following Jesus to be freed from this world, and yet He wants to lead us right back into it! Why would He lead us back there? We don’t want to go back. We left it all behind so we could follow Jesus in peace and safety. But it is into the world He leads us. Why? Because God has a plan for us.” -Jeremy Myers/The Skeleton Church

And the plan is for us to bring His love to everyone. Not judgment, not condemnation and certainly not fear. The love God wants us to reflect to this world must be rooted in trust and neither love nor trust is real if attached to conditions. God loves you if… is not the message!

Who’s Watching?

Religion is what you do for God that everyone can see. Faith (trust) is how you live with God when no one is watching or keeping score.

Walk Properly

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside,…

This portion of scripture has so much to consider. It came to mind after reading this post by John Pavlovitz. He has some great thoughts concerning faith, trust and doubt which I wholeheartedly agree we all struggle with. The question that led me to this scripture “Is doubt inevitable and unavoidable?” gets answered, “Yes.” But another query is, “Does it always have to be like this or is it possible to decrease doubt and increase trust or faith?” I think there is much reason for hope here. Scripture supports growing trust, history is filled with examples and chances are you can look back on your life and name any number of areas where trust has replaced doubt.

We can and should encourage each other with this hope but never from a position of superiority. We can’t forget our times of question and doubt or think for a moment that we won’t be faced with more. We are all completely unique and in personal relationships with God whether we know it or not. Diminishing others because their faith doesn’t measure up is as wrong as wrong can be.

It seems to me the more our trust increases; the less important it is for us to be right, the more compassion and understanding we have for everyone, the less afraid we are of questions and the more equipped we are to share God’s love without strings or hoops.

Other thoughts on this passage: It begins and ends with love, always has, always will. Taught by God, we should never abdicate our personal relationship with God to anyone especially those that claim spiritual authority, apostleship, anointedness or asks you to be accountable to them. Increase more and more, there is always more of Him, we will never exhaust Him, there is and will always be more of Him to be understood and known. Lead a quiet life, mind your own business, and work with your own hands , For me these bring about many questions about what we see in so much of modern “Christianity”. Walk properly toward those who are outside, oh my.

Real Security

Can’t be found in a paycheck, a fence, a wall, a gun, an army or anything else we come up with ourselves. True security only comes from a keen understanding of how deeply God loves you, how personal and unique that love is and knowing His love will never change, never leave or even waiver.

Don’t Forget

God loves you like He’s never loved anyone before or will again. You are unique and His greatest desire is to have an extremely intimate one of a kind connection with you. This love, this relationship is the very one your heart desires more than anything. Don’t look for it anywhere else that will do nothing but fail, bring heartache and damage those around you. Trust Him, count on His love for you. With Him you lack nothing.

Trust

If love is the answer (and it certainly is) then trust is the vital result. To put it simply, knowing that you are truly loved births the ability to trust God regardless of the circumstances surrounding you. Love begets trust which leads to security bringing peace and freedom while keeping fear, worry, control, distraction and the need to conform at bay.

Have you noticed?

The things in your life you try or need to control the most are the very things that are the most screwed up and the harder you try to manage them, the more out of control they spin. If you’re honest with yourself you’ll recognize that the issue is trust, you don’t trust God or the people He’s put around you to love and care for you. So you do everything you can to protect yourself by manipulating your circumstances and isolating which results in feeling unloved and rejected proving once again…

The only way to counter this is by trusting that you are loved, that you are cared for and that you are not alone. This is not to discount your pain or present the solution in a cliché like “Let go, Let God”. For things to change it only happens with, with God and with others that know His unique love for them and for you.

John

My wife and I met a guy named John the other day. We could have talked to John for hours about nearly anything because you could easily tell that he cared. He was secure in who he is and simply confident about life. At one point in the conversation he told my wife how much he loved God. We weren’t surprised in fact we already knew. John’s love for God was all over him. At one point quite a ways into our encounter John told us about his eleven year old son that has leukemia. Sometime later we asked about other children and heard about his newborn son who two weeks before was in the NIC Unit due to major complications at birth. The complications were a huge medical issue for John’s wife too. In fact at one point in the last few weeks his wife was at one hospital while his sons where at different hospitals in another city. None of them were within twenty miles of their home.

At no time did John indicate anything other than joy! He had every reason to be down and good reason to doubt yet his excitement for God was amazingly contagious. We loved how he told us about his Lord not his church because it’s personal. His trust was infectious. We can all learn from John and people like him.

John’s wife and baby are home doing well, will you please pray for their older son Toby?

Three Simple Things

God’s message to us is not complicated. Through His birth and life among us He declared; I’m here, I’m real and I love you. In His death and resurrection He affirmed; I’m still here, I’m very real and I love you more than you can imagine. The implications of this should impact every aspect of our lives yet how often do we live with a “see You in Heaven” attitude or allow fear to control our lives as though He isn’t real and lack trust as though we are unloved?