Purposeful Choice

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith. Fear is a spiritual force that Satan uses to keep people down. Jesus encourages us to have faith and trust in God's word. The disciples in the boat during a storm lacked faith, while Jesus remained calm and peaceful. Faith is not a feeling, but a decision to rely on God. Fear takes our focus off Jesus and onto our anxieties. We need to actively reject fear and choose to believe in God's promises. Jesus had faith and demonstrated his authority over the storm. We should follow his example and strengthen our faith. 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 Matthew 8.26 He said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. Did the disciples feel full of faith in that boat, in that storm? Nope. They saw the storm. They saw the waves. They saw the waves in the boat, and they did not feel full of faith. Jesus was very surprised. What happened before this? Jesus healed the leper who had faith. Jesus could do it. Verses 1-4 A centurion came to Jesus and asked for healing for his servant. He did not require the physical intervention of Jesus. The centurion understood authority and believed that if Jesus simply gave the word, his servant would be healed. Period. Jesus marveled at this man's faith. Verse 10 And he gave the word. Verses 5-13 At Peter's home, Peter's mother-in-law was sick with a fever, and Jesus healed her. Verses 14-17 Everyone heard of these things, and a great multitude came at him. And Jesus wanted to go after he'd healed them. And so they went. He said, Let's go over to the other side. And that's when the storm kicked up. The disciples had just seen amazing displays of the power of God. And remember, when he called them to be the twelve disciples, he empowered them with authority. But they did not feel full of faith. Jesus was sleeping because he was tired, because of all the miraculous healing the Father had done through him and the walking. Jesus was exhausted. The man was too tired to stay awake. This exhaustion is proof of his full manhood. God doesn't get tired. Man gets tired. But Jesus fully trusted in his Father to protect and care for him. So Jesus often grabbed sleep whenever he could, frequently in a boat. And here, in peaceful trust in the love and care of his Father, Jesus slept in spite of the storm. Jesus didn't feel calm and peaceful. Jesus was calm and peaceful. He had full faith. Faith is not a feeling. If you were going to chase feelings, you're going to have problems following the Lord. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of faith, not of feelings. Feelings are fine. They're good. Many serve necessary functions. Others are just plain fun. And when they are occurring because of an emotional or a physical move of God, that is great and a lovely thing. But they don't happen every time or all the time. We'd be emotional balls of wreckage if they did because the Lord never leaves us and the Holy Spirit never ceases speaking to us. If we only moved on feelings, where would faith be? Faith is defined in Hebrews 11.1 as assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. That means we don't always get a feeling, a tingle, a whispered word, or a cool breeze. Sometimes there is peace, as in a lack of conflict or squidgy feelings, but no feeling attached to it. Sometimes there is nothing at all, but it's still there. Faith isn't a feeling. Fear is also not a feeling. It is a force, a force of darkness, of the curse. There is nothing useful in the curse. There is nothing useful in fear. Fear kills faith. Fear takes our eyes off of Jesus and turns them onto other. We're looking at the evil spirit. We're looking at the storm around us. We're looking at our inability to accomplish or provide. We're dwelling on our anxiety, our depression, or our addictions. We're looking at anything and everything except the Lord. In fact, sometimes we're looking into the dark that is so dark we can't see anything, but our imaginations are providing all sorts of under-the-bed monsters for us to worry about and be scared of. When we're othering, we're not believing. When we're othering, we're not listening. We need to actively push away the other and look back to Jesus to train our ears on the spirit and not on our brains. It isn't always an easy thing. Sometimes we have to see and recognize thought as what it is before we can decide to put it from us. That doesn't mean once. That means our brain is bringing something up a dozen times, a hundred times. We need to actively and honestly look at that thought and say, that is not from the Lord. I reject that. No, thank you. And then push it away every time it comes up, even if it comes up all day long. Eventually, our standing on a focus on Jesus will send the message, we aren't going to move. The other then stops. But how do we do all that? It's easy to choose to experience fear. How do we choose to experience not fear? We do what Jesus asks us to do, what he asked his disciples to do. We are to have faith. Now, faith and love are intertwined. When we love someone, we have faith in them, in their behavior toward us and toward the world. At its core, faith is reliance. When we feel we can rely on someone, we have faith in them. Love is a decision. Faith is a decision. Neither are feelings, even though feelings can be attached to them. Do you believe the word is truth? Do you believe the Lord God? Because he says the word is true, John 17, 17. He says that he keeps his promises, Joshua 21, 45, and Jeremiah 1, 12, among other verses. We can rely on the Lord God Almighty. We can have faith in him, born of our eager expectation and our complete confidence, fully persuaded that if he says a thing, then he is able to do that thing, Romans 4, 21. By faith, we understand God made the universe with words. By faith, we come to Jesus. By faith, at Jesus' feet, we accept salvation. We choose to believe. Now, if you believe some of it, why not believe all of it? It's the same process of decision. We hear the word. We choose to believe the word. We can then choose to rely on the word in the act of having faith. We aren't called to understand or to perform, and that is something worthy of daily thanksgiving. We are called to choose to believe, Hebrews 11, 6. Jesus had to have faith. He had to choose to believe he was the Son of God. Don't believe me? What was the first thing Satan said to him, Matthew 4, 3? If you were the Son of God. Jesus, in his total humanity, chose to believe he was also who the Spirit said he was. He chose to believe that he was going to be able to accomplish his task through the power of the Father manifest in himself. He chose to believe the Father did not want him dead. Whether he accomplished his mission or not, Jesus didn't attach judgment or the need to accomplish his mission. He simply walked in what he was shown as he was shown it and believed he would accomplish it. He had faith. He had faith in God. He had faith in God's love. He had faith in what he was shown that he was to do. He had faith. Now, the storm was threatening their lives. The disciples looked to the natural world around them and not to the words of Jesus. In verse 18, Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes around him, he gave the order to depart to the other side. They could have held to the promise of the order to depart to the other side and work their reliance on that command into action, not on their own, but by grasping what was offered to them by the Lord. They did not do that. They grasped what fear was offering and embraced unbelief. When we grasp fear, we are making a conscious and purposeful choice. It is what removes power on our side of the equation. We are choosing to rely on what is happening around us. We are choosing to rely on our strength. Humans can be strong and powerful in a physical or physically mental state, but that means nothing when we come up against the curse, when we come up against the spiritual world. When we choose not to take God at his word, we are choosing the experience of where we are in the world over where we are in the word. God is then bound by our unbelief and cannot respond with his power. Matthew 18, 18 Our faith is not charged, but depleted, and we are able to do nothing. They chose fear and woke Jesus up in that fear. Jesus did not rebuke their waking him. Jesus didn't take them to task for requesting he save them. Jesus didn't chew into them because they were standing in unbelief. He also didn't do anything about the storm. Jesus was still not worried. Jesus was still at peace in his reliance on the Father to keep him safe and cared for. He took the time to talk to them gently with a smile, with a hug of spirit. He spoke to their unbelief and mocked it, not them, but the unbelief. He spoke to their faith and told it that it could be stronger, that it was able, that it had worth and ability and could shine in the dark of this storm. Jesus encouraged them. Why are you fearful, you men of weak faith? Why are you not praying to the Father? Why are you not claiming your authority that I have given you by telling you to get us over to the other side? Why are you not deepening your faith, strengthening your faith, empowering your faith with words of reliance on the Lord God Almighty? Why aren't you building your capacity of faith? Jesus wasn't concerned with their request for saving, but he was concerned that they were letting themselves embrace fear. Jesus then gave them the example of what they should have done. He got up and rebuked the storm that was threatening them, using the authority of the word that the Holy Spirit gave him by the Father's will, and bam, it was gone. The disciples should have stood on that boat and demanded the storm cease because it was the will of Jesus for them to go to the other side. They should have stood on that boat and demanded the storm cease because the Father wanted them and Jesus safe on their journey as evidenced by Jesus' command to continue their mission on the other side of the lake. But they had their eyes on their other and not on Jesus' words. But they could have. Jesus had already preached the Sermon on the Mount. They knew that the Father would take care of their needs and had all power and glory, Matthew 6, 9-13. He had spoken to them and appointed them with the authority that they had, Mark 3, 13-15. It isn't about them standing up and rebuking the storm. It is about them giving into fear and waking Jesus because of fear. They could have been calm. They could have decided to have faith, even if they hadn't been able to do anything with the storm, even if they hadn't thought to try anything with the storm. They could have been calm inside their spirits and woken Jesus to see what was to be done. But they didn't have faith. They hadn't meditated on what they had seen and heard. They had not kept Jesus' words and the word they had been taught before their eyes. They did not make the right choice. Our faith is a conscious and purposeful choice. That is what gives it its power on our side of the equation. We are choosing to rely on something beyond ourselves. We are choosing to take God at His word. We are choosing the word over the experience of where we are in the world. God then responds with His power, and our faith is then charged with the word and the will of God. Once God is involved, our faith is more than the power of our decision. When we have faith, we are losing God to do His will. And when our faith, when our decision is impregnated with the will and the word of the Lord God Almighty, our faith is powered to move mountains at a word. Fear is a choice like faith is a choice. They both operate the same way. You can choose one. You can choose the other. Your choice will determine the outcome of your situation more than what you feel. Feelings aren't real. They change with every breath of breeze that comes along. Choices determine our reality. It isn't always easy. Decisions aren't, but they are decisions, and we can make them. In fact, we have to. We can do it actively or passively. Never let fear make you choose wrong by not choosing at all. A not choice is a choice for not faith. Choose Jesus. Choose faith. Choose reliance on God, because God can be relied on. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Matthew 5, 3-12. Jesus wants us comforted, gentle, righteous, merciful, pure, peaceful, and rewarded. The Father wants all good things for us. God loves us. They love us. You can't escape it. It is the major lesson of the gospel. It is the good news. Jesus is our Redeemer. Sin is no more. All good things can be ours. Heaven can be our destination. It doesn't have to be hell. We don't have to choose that. We can rely on Him. Read about it. Think about it. Accept it. God loves you. He really does. 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 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. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.