Be Confident

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith. It emphasizes the power of God's love and the importance of trusting in Him. It encourages believers to overcome fear through their relationship with God and to love others as God loves them. The ultimate message is that God loves each person unconditionally and wants them to live in victory. 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 Psalm 27.3 Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident. The Lord is hurting. There are tears in the heavenly places. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit got together before the world began. Ephesians 1.3-6 And thought of us. Knowing the end from the beginning, Isaiah 46.10, Jesus still agreed to suffer and die for us, to pay for our treason, John 3.16-21. And then they created the world, John 1.1-5. And the darkness did not overcome it. But boy, we certainly try, don't we? There are shots being fired in the world today. There is death stalking someone tonight. There is hunger, pain, and fear. Those who are bruised, battered, abandoned, and alone. It is dark, and it looks darker the more you look at it. But darkness did not overcome it. Matthew 11.12 From the days of John the baptizer until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. We are in warfare, spiritual warfare. We can get angry at the enemy and take hold violently of the promises and the prosperity of God. We can align our will to God's will and fight, and in Jesus, overcome the enemy's will. Romans 12.21 Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. No one can tell you how to survive or act in times of warfare and horrific trouble, except the Lord. He can keep you safe, spirit, soul, and body. He can bring you to heaven without pain or suffering, no matter what happens to your body. Christians died singing hymns and praises in the arenas of Rome. The Lord can help you overcome everything. This is easy to say when not under fire. But if you abide in the Lord, then it is even easier to do. The Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit will wrap around you like a fortress. This isn't your neighbor defending you with a rifle. This is the God of the universe who created everything there is, and he is with you. There may be an army coming for you. You may have deliverance in your future. You may be laying down your life to defend others. There may be tragedy or triumph with your name on it. But you do not need to fear. You can be confident. Because no matter what, God is with you. That means victory is yours. Does it feel like it? It doesn't always, does it? When something happens to your kids in the middle of the night. When the bills don't seem to be getting paid. When something terrible is out and about in the world around you. You get on your knees and you start praying, but it can feel more like begging than victory. Feelings aren't real in the sense of being the baseline by which we can gauge anything. We feel them. They're strong and they tell us information, but they are completely and totally subjective. They'll change as your information changes. You feel A about someone or something. Learn more about them or it, and now you feel B. Psychologists promote the idea that you face your fears because it teaches you to cope with and eventually overcome them. That fear often comes from not knowing very much about the thing you fear. Knowledge alters your feelings. Spiritually, it works the same way. Our bodies are an extension of our spirits. What is true in the spiritual will have a shadow in the natural. You can love God, be okay with the idea of a God who exists and is real, but never have a relationship with Him. You can believe, but never really get your head out of the natural world around you. And then you can blame the church and God for being fake or that it doesn't work. What is you and your feelings that weren't working? If we don't know something in our spirit, then our feelings are the best gauge we have to face any situation in life. Fear didn't exist before the fall, because until Adam betrayed God, there was only faith. There was only knowledge in the spirit about who we as created beings are and how we as created beings interacted with the world around us. There was only a full knowledge about where we fit into things. Then fear came. And all of a sudden, that is our instant, flush reaction to everything. A reaction based on trying to have ourselves keep ourselves safe. We lost the innate knowledge that God has our back, and we walked in authority. When we get that back and realize that we have victory in Jesus, we have the authority that Jesus says we can use, the fight or flight instinct is useless, pointless, and can be made to shed its power. This isn't the end of common sense or the beginning of doing whatever we want. It's the end of looking to us for our safety and the beginning of true communion with God. God wants you safe. Now this can mean angelic help to keep our feet from stumbling, Psalm 91, 11-12. But this also means telling you things, talking to you, constant dialogue, those whispers about what is and is not a wise action, warnings and suggestions, ideas and tips, entering into all aspects of our lives, not to make us dependent in the sense of needing to hear a word before we can do anything. That's crippling codependence. But getting to have the input of our Creator in everything that we do, from small to big, a constant check that never stops, walking on His path, doing our best to be present with Him, and listening for the voice that lets us know what He thinks about everything. We still choose. We can go with the advice. We can go against it. It's our choice, His input. And it all comes from knowing we have victory in Jesus. How do we get this? Thinking. Thinking on Him. Before the crisis, during the calm. Look at Genesis 1-1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Simple verse. Profound implications. Let's look at one of them. Beginning means the point at which something begins or starts. The first part. The birth. Baseline. Launch. Get-go. And commencement, which is the at, instance, or time of commencing, which is to enter upon, materialize, and actualize. That means that at the time when God decided to make things actual, He stood at the point at which the first part would begin and materialize the launch of the first fruits of the creation of the heavens and the earth. That's a lot of words. A lot of meaning. And it all boils down to this. God thought. He thought about it all. All the aspects of it. All the nitty-gritty. Everything that He would do. Everything that we would do. 1 Peter 1-20. God was granting us purpose and grace. 2 Timothy 1-9. He was thinking of, determining, and writing our names. Revelation 13-8. He was glorifying His Son. John 17-5. He was blessing us. Ephesians 1-3. He was choosing us. Ephesians 1-4. He was fellowshipping. John 1-1. And more than anything, more than anything that God was doing, more thinking than He was thinking about anything else, He was loving. John 17-24. God was loving everyone. God was choosing to love you. Let that sink in. The Lord God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, thought about every single thing that you were going to do. Every word, every action, every breath, every laugh, every tear. And He smiled. He spoke to His Son and Spirit about you. He chose your name and He wrote it down. He gave you grace and faith, purpose. He saved you and placed you inside of His Son so that you would be safe. He then turned around, took a deep breath, and entered upon the act of launching all that would be needed so that He could see you, meet you, and speak to you. Face to face, heart to heart, spirit to spirit. God created the heavens and the earth to get to meet you. And that is nothing small. He is. Do not be afraid. He is. Do not be afraid. He is. Do not be afraid. Abide in His love. Be obedient to His words. He has you. He has you. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Matthew 5, 43 to 48. God loves us all. God loves us first. And He asks us to love each other. And it is hard. Why? Because we're not Him. We're in this world even though we're not of it. We're in it. And we see it. And it is hard to see it with the Lord's eyes. But it is not impossible. Jesus loves us. And Jesus will lend His eyes to us. As He gives us His grace and faith and spirit, we can get His eyes too. Do not hate. Love. Love isn't an emotion. It's a life choice. It isn't fleeting. It's long-suffering. Love those who set themselves against you. Love them. Pray for them. They need it. Bad. And Jesus has it for them. Because He has it for all of us. Each and every one. If we'll only take it. And we need it so badly. Pray for them. Please. As we close, remember that you have birth. 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. There's 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.