Faith or Falter?

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture, rejecting fear and embracing faith. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. By championing faith and trusting in God's word, we can overcome fear. The world is filled with anxiety, depression, and worry, especially with the current pandemic. Technology cannot replace human interactions, leading to loneliness. However, we can conquer fear by letting God do it with us. We are spirit beings and, with God, nothing is beyond our capability. Jesus accomplished everything by obeying his Father's will, and we are called to be like him. Obedience to God's word is crucial for a prosperous and secure life. We can let God's love and prosperity flow into our lives through faith and sanctification. By listening to God's voice, obeying Him, and praying, we can experience His blessings. Faith should permeate every aspect of our lives, guided by the Word. Our daily affirmation is that nothing Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Leviticus 26.6-8 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. We've had the Age of Empires, the Age of Enlightenment, the Dark Ages. What about today? More than anything else, I would say this is the Age of Dread, especially if you're believing the headlines. People are dealing with anxiety, depression, and worry as almost never before. There have been scarier times, but only segments of the population of the world were gripped with fear or had to deal with it in those scarier times. This is almost global. Every corner of the globe is full of this junk. It's been made worse by the pandemic and the necessary isolations the world had to put in place. I say had to because they were approaching it from the natural only, and in the natural, quarantine is a valid method of combating sickness. We have a world full of technological wonders. We have the Internet, cameras, and microphones. We can contact people all over the globe at almost any time of day or night, yet people complain of being lonely. The technology isn't meeting their needs the way in-person human interactions did. They're isolated and hurting, and their ears ring with the chorus of dread, because what else do they have to do but doom-scroll the headlines? But we do not have to give in to that. We can conquer that by letting God do it. In ourselves, we are weak and unable to accomplish it, but God can do it with us. What does the Word say? But He, Jesus, said, Luke 18, 27. When we do it with each other in our own strength, we're limited. If we do it with God in His strength, nothing can hold us back. With God, not with men. I cannot stress this enough. When we look at human thoughts, human solutions, human ideas, we can do great things. But we can only go so far because human thought is tied to this flesh, this earth, this singular material existence. We can join together and work together and accomplish things that can shake the heavens of this world, but it isn't enough. We aren't a physical people. We aren't this flesh. We aren't this world. We are made from dust, but we are not dust. We are spirit. We are a spirit people. We are not of this world alone. We have a whole other side, and it is not seen or touched or felt or measured, and that takes it out of the realm of the human. With men, we can only go so far. But as spirit beings, if we ally ourselves with God, who is spirit, then with him, nothing is beyond us. With God, giving permission for him to move, and then moving, doing, and saying according to what he says, walking with, abiding in, and following Jesus, the Christ. We together can accomplish everything and anything. Nothing can stop us. We know that because he promised that. If we stand on his word, then obey his voice, then no one and nothing will fill us with dread or fear. Nothing will be beyond our capability because he is doing the heavy lifting. We are doing the believing. We do the faith, which he gives us by grace, and he does the miracle. Jesus did that here on earth. On his own, Jesus accomplished nothing. Jesus had no power. Jesus used no power. Jesus utilized no power. Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise. John 5.19 The Father in Jesus did it all. The power rested on and in Jesus and went out according to the will of the Father, not the will of Jesus. I, Jesus, can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me. John 5.30 Jesus did nothing. Jesus, with God, did everything. He listened to his Father. He obeyed his Father, and in obeying, he walked out the instructions and did many miraculous things. We can do the same thing because we are called to be like him. 1 Peter 2.21 We are called to abide in him, Ephesians 5.1-2, and let him do what he wants, which we know from his own lips is only what the Father wants and wills. Listen, obey, walk. It's a simple process. God tells us in Leviticus 26.3-5 that obedience to him and his word is the number one most important thing in life. If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season. And the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall continue until the vintage, and the vintage shall continue until the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely. Right there would eliminate how much anxiety and depression, having not only your needs met, but also being prosperous and secure. Isn't that a better thing to believe than worry? I say believe not because I think you can wish away clinical depression and anxiety and other mental illnesses, but what I know is that God can do anything and everything we allow him, not just dealing with our feelings, emotionals, and mental landscape, but also dealing with our heart and the thinking, emoting, and memories that rise up from that physical organ, which is untouchable in any other way. When you're saved, you become a new person, whole, healthy, and completely dread-free. No animals have anxiety and depression stalking you. Spiritually, we are perfect and righteous. Our spirits start at a point of total, absolute prosperity. We can let that prosperity flow down and transform both our spirit and our flesh through sanctification, 1 Corinthians 1.30. We can also try to block it and not let it come down. Believe in the Lord, obey what the Holy Spirit asks of you, and enjoy the blessings of God, 1 John 1.2. When God is there, his love is there. Where love is, there is no fear, 1 John 4.18. Where there is joy, there is no depression. So what's the formula then? Listen to his voice. Obey his voice. Praise him and pray about everything. Tell him what's bugging you. He takes care of all your needs. So go to him with your wants and concerns. He'll listen. Just do what he says to do after. Do everything in faith. Let faith become a part of every moment of every day. Philippians 4.6-7 says, Hebrews 11.6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to be well-pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. And Romans 14.26 warns us that whatever is not of faith is sin. Now, the first is clear. The second is part of a teaching on not doing things that make your brothers and sisters stumble and avoiding foods or drinks that could be a problem for those who see you. That's a physical thing, but you can see how it's a principle that can be applied to the spiritual as well. When we start to look at the scriptures about faith and interact with them, we can see how faith isn't isolated. It isn't this corner of our life or that. Every aspect of Jesus' life was devoted and submitted to his Father. Ours should be the same way. Every aspect of our lives touched by the Word, guided by the Word, lived in faith, by faith, and for faith, making eager expectation of the things of the Lord part of everything from chores to work to entertainment to family to spending to time management to everything. And anything else too. To operate in the total freedom of obedience to Yahweh, God Almighty, Galatians 5.1. Believe the Word. Believe it and have faith in it. Strengthen your faith with it. Don't do anything without it. Meditate on it day and night, not as a chore, but as a glorious opportunity to put fear, dread, anxiety, and worry right where it belongs, at the foot of the cross. Walk into an age of faith. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Romans 8, 31-39. God loved us and held nothing back to express that love. He made us, our world, the universe that world is within. He didn't hold back His own Son. He has done everything. He is still doing. Why? Because He is with us and refuses to allow anything to separate Himself from us. Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Nothing. Not things or distance or mental conditions or circumstances. Nothing. Period. Don't believe me. Believe Him. It's in the Word. As we close, remember that you have earth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you just because you're you. 1 John 4 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent His only-born Son into the world, that we might live through Him. And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear, too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.