Don't Pick It Up

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear in any form. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. Instead, faith in God is championed. The news often features stories of war to invoke fear, but Jesus tells us not to be troubled. We should care for the poor and needy, including those affected by war. Doing good works is proof of true belief in Jesus. Worry is useless, and we should trust in God's provision. Our words have power, so we should speak positively and give our concerns to the Lord. We can choose not to be negative and not to worry. Jesus meets our needs and blesses us so we can help others. We should abide in Him, listen to Him, and refuse worry. Jesus' goal is to establish our hearts blameless in holiness. We achieve this through belief, receiving, and walking with Him. 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 24.6-8 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren't troubled. For all this must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are the beginning of birth pains. It is so easy to get worked up about war. Now let me be clear, I'm not talking about war happening to you, and I'm also not talking about social wars, like the often featured War on Christmas, or the much less championed War on Homelessness, or the completely pointless war against J.K. Rowling. I am talking about real war happening in real places, and causing the deaths of real people. We've all seen images and read news stories about them. They are very popular as part of the entertainment world, docu-dramas, and true tales of, and such. There are dozens upon dozens of books, fiction and non, about almost every historical battle, not even counting whole wars. And despite the lessons we, as a species, are supposed to learn from them, there has rarely been a fortnight that has gone by without me hearing about one that is still ongoing, or starting up. Jesus tells us not to let ourselves be troubled. See that you aren't means that we have a choice about what we emotionally experience. But, you say, the plight of those people, the ones who have lost homes, loved ones, and all their possessions, starving people, dislocated people, forced immigrants. They're scared, confused, out of their element, and lost. So very lost. How can I not be troubled when I see them on the news every day? Well, the news loves to feature stories about them for two reasons. One, they get people watching and reading the news. Two, they pull on our heart strings. The second thing can be good. It can get us to give alms, to donate money and items, to help out, to reach out and let our fellow humans know they are not alone, that they will be cared for, that the future isn't all bleak and sorrow. That first thing, though, that's the hook that will get your feelings rising. Most people aren't consuming news media because they want to know about the victims of war or even the war. Most people are drawn to watch the news about war because of fear. Fear intentionally inserted to make things sound worse than they are, as well as fears we've picked up on our own. What's going to happen? Are we next? Should we restock the bomb shelter? Should we dig a bomb shelter? Is there any hope of survival? Quick, buy all the toilet paper you can get your hands on. Forget the beans. I'm not getting into a shelter with you and beans. This is the kind of thing that Jesus warned against. Don't pick up fear. Don't pick up anxiety. Don't borrow trouble that isn't yours. This is not saying, that's over there. It will never happen here. That's foolish talk. But why are you fearful, panic buying, and generally getting so stressed and anxious that you have trouble sleeping? I cannot tell you the number of people I see and interact with on social media who are stressed and losing what peace that exists in their lives over wars happening a continent or more away. Yes, we should be cognizant of world events. Why not? Being informed isn't bad. But when it comes to your peace, mentally walk away. Don't stick your head in the sand. Stick it in the Word. We are commanded to take care of the poor among us. Leviticus 19.10 Deuteronomy 15.11 Luke 14.13-14 2 Corinthians 9.9 Galatians 2.10 This would include those that are war-torn. Jesus had a heart for the hurting. Emotional and physical, not just spiritual. We are to be imitators of Jesus. Ephesians 5.1-2 If we leave the poor or the needy or the immigrant in poverty, we will answer for it. Matthew 25.45-46 These aren't idle words and cute parables. These are direct commands and codes of conduct. This is how we should automatically be. We were saved by grace through faith. But what good is faith if it doesn't touch your heart? If it doesn't create new fruit or action within us? You can do all the good in the world and still choose to go to hell because you refuse to believe in Jesus. But you cannot believe in Jesus and not do good works. Doing good in this world is a defining proof that your salvation was real and your belief true. What does James say? Show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works. James 2.18 Your doing good for those around you is the justification or your mark, if you will, that you've indeed stepped into the righteousness of Jesus. Because Jesus did good works. And if we are striving to abide in Him, we won't be able to help doing them too. We can have compassion, have concern, and seek to do the best for us, those around us, and those around the world as far as we are able, and still not take on the fear of it. Worry is useless. It does nothing. It means you're scared of something. But in Jesus, we have all the victory we can ever need in every area of life. So why worry? We don't have to like every situation that comes up. There are a dozen things a day that I don't like. But I choose to say Jesus has this. My God provides. My God sustains. My God has me. It isn't always easy. I frequently repent of saying I'm worried about, or the thing that worries me, or something like that. I have to choose to say no. Wrong words. I repent of that. I will not worry. I don't like it, and I don't want this to be, but my God has this. Then I thank the Lord for having me, for having the situation, and I praise Him for it. If I'm concerned, I take the concern to Him, and I leave it there, sometimes with a lot of reminders to myself that I have left it there. It is a simple thing that is hard to do. It gets easier with practice, and we get a lot of practice, because until you start actively thinking about the words coming out of your mouth and programming your atmosphere, you don't realize how much of what we say isn't idle conversation, but negative seeds. We don't say, I always get sick. We say to the Lord, thank you for my health. I don't want to participate in flu season. I give that whole season to you, Lord. We don't say, I always cut myself when I'm preparing a big meal. We say to the Lord, thank you that you watch over me. Thank you that you keep me safe in all things. Help me as I chop, slice, and dice. We don't speak negative over us or those around us. We don't look at the TV news or Internet news and complain about the politicians, mock our leaders, and say, this is going to be bad. We take the concerns that come up and we give them to the Lord, give him permission to work, request that he send his angels to minister to those involved, and praise him that he has the situation in hand. We seek to build up and help, not to tear down and complain. Our words are seeds. We need to be full of intent when we speak. We need to plant the right crop. Remember that keep silent for a few seconds before you respond thing, that count to 10 thing? Try taking those few seconds and giving things to the Lord, or praying that Holy Spirit will give you the words to say. It will change your atmosphere, slowly but completely. We can choose not to be negative. We can choose to act for the positive as we are led by the Lord. We can choose not to worry. This is what we are to do. Make a difference. Not worry about what about me. God will take care of us. If we are abiding in him, if we are actively, intentfully reading the word, he will tell us what to do and where to go. We just have to listen, to pause our mouths, and use our ears. Our spiritual ears, not always our audible ears. Now we may find ourselves in the storm of war, but we can still be resting in the boat of salvation, not being tossed about on the face of the earth. Jesus is the Lord of life, not the Lord of things going well. He can meet all your needs, no matter where you find yourself. Let him meet your needs, and abide in his peace. When he meets our needs, he also blesses us, and being blessed, we take care of those who have needs, that are around us. But we also take care, not to let fear onto our shoulders. God is a God of peace. Guess what? He will quickly crush Satan under your feet. Romans 16 20. Abide in him. Listen to him. Act according to what he tells you. Refuse worry. Jesus won't let you down. Our daily affirmation of God's love is 1 Thessalonians 3 11-13. Jesus had a goal, for me, for you, for all of us. He wanted to establish our hearts blameless in holiness before his Father. That is what had been thrown away by Adam. Blameless in holiness before God. Without Jesus, it's impossible to achieve. It isn't attainable through effort, or good things we do. We can't even achieve blamelessness in holiness before our fellow human. This one thinks A is the moral path. That one thinks F is the moral path. But that one over there swears by Q. Thank the Lord God Almighty that he is merciful. Jesus came to bring us into himself, and establish us. All we need to do is believe, receive, and walk in it. Abiding in him, anchored in the word, daily talking with God, and listening always. Jesus will achieve his goal, if you let him. 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's no wrong answers here. There's 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.