One Thing and Then Another

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear in any form. It emphasizes the importance of faith and trust in God, and how His perfect love casts out fear. The transcription uses examples from the Israelites' journey to illustrate how God guides and protects His people. It also highlights the advantage we have as believers, being able to understand and follow the voice of God through Jesus. The message encourages rest, obedience, and the affirmation of God's love. It concludes by emphasizing that God loves us unconditionally. 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 78, 52-53 But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. This was before the Lord had explained the law, before the Ten Commandments were laid down, before He fed them every day with a miracle, before speaking to them directly as He descended on a mountain. This was right at the very start of their relationship. First, He freed them from oppression. Then He led them toward a desert, right up to a dead end. They had barely managed to believe Moses enough to come along, and bam! Roadblock. Doesn't that sound familiar? We go through life thinking things are okay. We have a handle on what's going on and where we're going to end up, a place to live, workplace opportunity, relationships, kids, education, retirement, bills, debts, and or fiscal solvency. We've been in horrible places and seen light at the end of the tunnel, but when we got there, we found a raging river that we couldn't cross. There's nothing quite like the sinking feeling of a roadblock when we're already feeling fragile in the first place. When you read the account in Exodus, you can feel those people moan. You can feel their backs rise. You can feel their dark looks at Moses, the fearful and longing looks behind them, and the hopeless looks at the waves mindlessly crashing on the shore. But God does not lead us astray. He does not lead us with no purpose. He course-corrects us as we meander, wander, and plain cut and run. If we're willing to take the correction, He can get us from where we bolted or ended up to where we were going originally, without backtracking. God is a God of growth and advancement. He doesn't backtrack. But we need to be in a place where we choose to realize that He's the one in charge. He's the one with the plan. He's the one with the power. He's the one who can save. He's the one who has solved the problems. And He is not bound by what we see, feel, experience, or know. He is God, and He knows best. Isaiah 55, 8-9 The enemies that were going to either drag the Israelites back to bondage or kill them outright, they died without ever getting within bow shot of the Israelites. They didn't even get a chance to strike a blow or hurl an insult that anyone could hear. The Lord had a solution before the Israelites knew there was a problem. It wasn't something they could do on their own. It wasn't something that so much has crossed their minds as a possibility. He took them to a place where they had to depend on Him, where He had to do the impossible to get victory, where He had a plan in place, Genesis 15-14, and the only place where full and total victory could be achieved. God doesn't make our trials. God doesn't cause the negative to come upon us. But He sees it coming, and He prepares us. He sees it coming, and He has a plan for total, complete, and impossible victory. He sees it, and He provides for our escape, whether we can see it yet or not. 2 Thessalonians 3, 3-5 Shepherds make sure their flocks have ample food, water, places to lie down out of the harmful elements, and they protect the flock, too. They watch for every threat. They go after every lost or misplaced sheep. They are always on alert, always caring, always monitoring, and always there. God does the same thing. He parted the waters and gave the Israelites a route out, even though it was impossible, and they could do absolutely nothing to assist Him. On the other side, He gave them water to drink, food to eat, washed over them, made sure their resources didn't deplete, and kept them out of all trouble that wasn't of their own making, even though almost all of it was impossible, and they could do absolutely nothing to assist Him. They did not need to fear. He made sure there was nothing to fear. Sheep are intelligent. They hold fast together. They protect each other. They avoid bad grazing and eat things that benefit them. They keep an eye out for predators. They're strong on their flock and their personal relationships within that flock, but they have limits. They have a wide range of vision, but they cannot see every threat. They don't have super keen senses. They aren't ultra fast. They aren't bristling with incredible defensive capabilities. They have a lot of strength, but they also rely on their shepherds. A shepherd doesn't raise a flock of sheep. He guides it. He protects it from things they can't see. He knows their shortcomings and prepares for it. He keeps them from environments that are harmful. He gives them a lot of autonomy and enables them to grow and develop together, but he's always there to help or stop behavior that will lead them astray, as long as they listen. Psalm 27. We're in a similar situation. We are his sheep, but we are in a unique place that the Israelites could not inhabit. We have an advantage that sheep do not have. Sheep recognize the voice of the shepherd. They know it, and they follow it, ignoring other voices saying the same thing. But the sheep only recognize the voice or the sound patterns of certain commands. The sheep do not speak the language of the shepherd. We have been given an incredible gift, Jesus. In Jesus, we have it all. His spirit dwells within us. His spirit speaks to us. His word transforms our minds. And so, we do more than hear the voice of the Lord. We can understand it. By grace, through faith, we can have fellowship. We aren't needing the protection of rules. We get to understand the principles those rules protected. We don't have to worry about misstepping and getting our hands slapped. We're allowed to want to do right, because it's right, because we love him. We get more than whistles and calls to direct our steps. We have words, wisdom, and a spirit of truth. We're sheep, but we are so much more than that. We are children, co-heirs. We're on the inside track. Jesus died and was raised to life so that you could have his spirit. We can stand in the presence of the Father because of what Jesus did. We can touch the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. How easy it is to be guided by a shepherd who is always beside us, dwelling within us, and always telling us what we need to know. We have only to believe, receive, listen, and walk in it. There will be course corrections, but his yoke is light. Matthew 11, 28-30. Take it up. You won't regret it. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Matthew 11, 25-30. The Lord of heaven and earth has a gracious will for us to come to him. Jesus came to reveal his Father to us. What a sight! What a beauteous sight! In Jesus, we can have rest. Real, actual rest. Wouldn't it be nice to just lie down and breathe for a bit? Head resting on the Father's lap, listening to him breathing. I tell you, Jesus is gentle and humble and will give rest to your soul. Believe and receive. Obey and listen. It's that simple. You can't get it wrong unless you do it on purpose. He's right there every moment to help you get it right. And it is right. So very right. 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 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 loved us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.