Faith Fuel

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear and champions faith in God. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was troubled when the angel called her highly favored and blessed among women, but she believed and had faith. Jesus emphasizes the importance of belief and faith, as all things are possible for those who believe. We are called to believe in the impossible and have faith in God's ability to do anything. Belief in Jesus can transform and restore us in all areas of life. Jesus loves us unconditionally and wants us to be with Him always. We are reminded of our worth and value to God, and that His love casts out fear. 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 Luke 1.29-30 What was the saying? What was this salutation? Verse 28 Notice, Mary wasn't troubled when the angel appeared. Zacharias was. Mary was not. Mary was troubled when the angel called her highly favored and blessed among women. Why? Because she was the same as you and me. She thought of herself as average, ordinary, nothing particularly special, just another girl. She was humble. Jesus did not have an egomaniac for a mother. She loved God, and she had faith. You know something that was special about that? That she didn't think it was special. Here is an angel telling her she was special. It was an angel, shining with the light of heaven, standing in her home, telling her she was highly favored and blessed. She got distressed at that, worried about that, concerned about that, and let's face it, who wouldn't? That is a lot to take in. But he told her not to be afraid, because she had found favor with God. The kingdom works on faith. It is built on faith. It runs on faith. It is faith that we can touch. Faith is real. Jesus put stock in faith. He told Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. John 20, 27. In Mark 16, 14, Jesus rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn't believe those who had seen him after he had risen. They were to believe. Jesus had told them in advance what was going to happen. They were supposed to remember that and believe it. He wants us to believe it. Why was he and is he so concerned about belief? He tells us one reason in Mark 16, 16. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who disbelieves will be condemned. Mary believed. Zacharias didn't. He scoffed and said, how can I be sure? Mary said, how can this be? Do you see the difference? Zacharias was asking for proof of the truth of the angel's word. Mary was asking out of wonder, curiosity, or just plain, excuse me, did I hear that right? Because she wasn't married yet. A God-reverencing girl wouldn't be breaking the law if she could in any way avoid it. Being a virgin and giving birth naturally while being a virgin is impossible. And not being a virgin carried a hefty penalty. It was probably the most human baffling statement that has been recorded in the word. Thank God that he is the God of the impossible. Mark 10, 27. Do you think it's impossible? Doesn't matter. Believe the impossible anyway. Go hand in hand with the Lord and let him do the impossible together with you. It's what we're called to do. How many impossible things are in your life? How many things can't you do? Can't pay bills? Can't make it to work? Can't get up and walk across the room? Jesus can deal with whatever you have in your life. He healed lepers and restored one to wholeness. That's not just curing the disease, but returning that man's body to the point that it was before he had the disease. Luke 17, 11-17. He delivered people from demons. Matthew 8, 16-17. People got healed, a multitude of people, by the simple act of touching his clothes. Luke 6, 19. People got healed by being touched by Peter's shadow in Acts 5, 15. Jesus, his 12 disciples, all the rest of the apostles, and many of the early church healed the sick, delivered them from demons, and other miracles. Regularly. How? Faith. Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, and again, faith. People believed. Believe. Have belief. It is important. Don't believe it's going to be a believed-er. Past tense. You believed it. Yeah, no, I believe that. I believe it. I know it. It's in there. Done. How important is this? In Mark 9, 23, Jesus said, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. That's pretty important. Now look at the touching with Jesus. A multitude sought to touch him and be healed, and they were. That was Luke 6, remember? Well, in Luke 8, we meet a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. She had heard about this touching thing. That must have sounded good. She was unclean, wasn't supposed to be out in public, could get stoned to death for it. She couldn't go and ask him. Ah, but she heard about the touching. She heard, and she believed the touching was enough. She thought about it, thought about it, built up her faith, built up her courage, and she became fully persuaded that touching him would be enough. If it worked for those other people, and she knew that it had, then it would work for her. She snuck out, snuck through the crowds, and managed to touch the fringe of his clothes. Bam! She was instantly healed. We know that because Jesus turned around asking who had touched him. The disciples couldn't believe it because they were being pressed on every side by the crowds. But Jesus meant who touched him in faith. He said, someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me. Verse 46. And then in verse 48, he said to her, daughter, cheer up. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. It had worked. Belief in what Jesus had done for others worked. She applied it to her life and found that God doesn't have favorites. He does not deny. He responds to faith. He cherishes those who were believed hers. We all have needs. I'm talking real needs. Not the psychobabalicious, animalian instincts the world is so desperate for everyone to embrace. And I'm not talking about false need that is really a want born out of a consumerist society that wants you to buy, buy, get, get, and then get some more. I mean real needs. The serious needs. You have needs. I have needs. Some natural, some supernatural. We have needs. And we cannot meet all of them. Sometimes, most of them. But Jesus can. He isn't asking us to fix our life. Thank you, Lord, for that. He's asking us to believe that He can fix our life. Not eventually. Not if He wills it. Now. Now. Sanctification and restoration are a process. But the timeline is always now. Start now. Improve now. Heal now. Whole now. In this moment, believed. And in the next, believed. And in the next, and the next. Until the need is gone and we are satisfied, sustained, and restored, holy people unto God. We are called to believe for what we cannot see. It doesn't take faith to believe what we can see. We can see it. I'm not talking about positive thinking, pie in the sky, deny reality, mumbo jumbo. This isn't crossing your fingers and asking the universe to manifest a six-figure income. This isn't saying, hey, God, I gave you ten bucks. Clear my debts. This isn't making God do anything. I'm talking about looking into your heart and believing that Jesus, the anointed one, that the Lord God Almighty is able to do anything, whether it is possible or impossible, by our standards, whether it is natural or supernatural, whether it makes sense or doesn't make sense from our point of view, or whether anyone else believes or not, ever. God is the one and only living God who created the universe, who loves us each and every one because He wants to, and He is able to do anything, capable of doing anything, and wants to do everything. Believe it. Believe it. Believe it. The worst thing that could happen is this. You believe. You live in belief, and you die in belief. Belief is joyous. Belief is something that helps us stand under God's wings. Belief ignites our hearts in faith and the peace that we cannot understand. Philippians 4, 7. And that's a pretty good worst. What's the best? The best is that you let Him move, and God does it. That your belief, your faith, by His grace and in His Son, opens the door into your life, and lets in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty, and you're changed from the inside out, spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, and every other way. Revelation 3.20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come into him and will dine with him and he with Me. Now tell me, why would Jesus be standing and knocking if He was going to do things when and if He wanted? He's knocking because we need to make that decision. We need to invite Him in. We need to give Him permission to work His will as He wills to work it. And then we need to get into the Word and feed our faith, strengthen our faith, commune with Holy Spirit and Jesus and the Father as we journey through this life. Doing what they say, when they say it. Obedience. That's what we do. The best is that you are transformed into a complete new creation in Jesus Christ. Not just 2 Corinthians 5.17, new in our spirit, but totally new from there right on out to the tips of your neighbor's toes. From Jeremiah 30.17 through Mark 11.24, right up to Romans 15.13, standing on 2 Corinthians 13.9, looking for full restoration. Jesus said in Matthew 11.28, That's rest for our souls as well as rest for the rest of us. Spirit informs soul, and soul brings body into line with His Word. Now that is a believable, wonderful, and heavenly best. Take a step of faith today by accepting the faith and grace that Jesus offers to us to accomplish all of this. Believe on and in Him today. Believe that He has done it, that He wanted to do it, that He has it for you in His open hands as He knocks at your door. Believe it. Open the door. Receive it. Walk in it as a believed-er. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Revelation 22. Jesus started everything, and Jesus is going to end everything. We know this because He said so. He said it because it is true. Jesus is God. God is the beginning and the end. Jesus is Alpha Omega, and He wants you with Him. God thought of us in the beginning and started the ball rolling to this wonderful world and the infinitely more wonderful world to come. Jesus wants us there. From the foundation of the world, He was going to die for us to give us the ability to get in there. That is where He wants us. He is not sending you anywhere else. He does not want you anywhere else. He chose to do something that would kill sin before it even rose up and infected us. He loves us. He loves us so much. He told us how it is all going to end so we keep the faith. Our faith in Him, who is doing it all to ensure that we can get to Him and stay with Him because He does not want to be parted from us. Not ever. Because He loves us. As we close, remember that you have worth. 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 are 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 love 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. He can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.