One Unexpected Thing

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear in any form. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. We should champion faith in God and accept His word as truth. Unexpected moments that overwhelm us are common, but God had a plan to redeem us and eliminate fear. We have the power to choose what we experience and we can pray to overcome challenges. God wants us to have good things, not bad things. We should trust in the Lord and not fear what is to come. Our performance does not affect God's love for us. We should believe in the truth of God's word and pray to bridge the gap between heaven and earth. Praise God in all circumstances and have faith in His love. We are precious and valuable to God, and His love for us 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 Proverbs 3.25-26 Do not be afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it comes, for Yahweh will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being taken. Everyone expects Monday to be terrible, for Wednesday to be a long day, and for Friday to take about a century to pass. The first is the day you dread because you have to go back to work. Next is the middle of the week and you're only halfway there. And the last is the day that just won't end and give you that weekend you deserve. We say stuff like that. We expect stuff like that. And so it happens like that. And it isn't pleasant, but we expect it, so it isn't that bad. But the unexpected, that'll break you. I know a woman who tended to anxiety. She knew most of what she was facing, and it was okay. She was traveling. She projected what she would have to go through, and it was okay. It helped her handle it mentally. She went, got picked for a body search at the airport. That was okay. Her bags were gone through with a fine-tooth comb. That was okay. But when it was over, she discovered that her carry-on hadn't been repacked properly, and she broke. That was it. Now, in life's wide scope, it was a nothing. But to her, in that moment, it was not okay. She broke down. She also managed to continue on, but it was hours before she felt okay. And the day could not end soon enough. It was a single, unexpected happening, but it was too much. It was sudden. It was disrespectful. It was a time of stress and crisis to her, and she was lost in it. Things like this, unexpected moments that are too much, surround us all over the globe. And God knew it. The Father knew it before he decided to make people. The Father knew it before he told Jesus and Holy Spirit that he was going to make people. He knew it, and he had a plan. He was going to redeem us. Pay the price for us. Eliminate the curse and enable the blessing. Bring us close so he can comfort us and protect us and take care of us. Jesus volunteered as soon as he knew it was on the table. The very moment. And from that moment, those of us on this side of the cross were saved. Saved from the unexpected. Saved from the projected. And saved from the expected. God brings us nothing bad. No sickness, trouble, persecution, trials, or tests. We aren't here working things out. We aren't on earth to learn a lesson. And we aren't here on earth to do anything for ourselves. Jesus does everything for us. All we do is believe it, receive it, and then do what is the meaning of life. Abiding in the Father so we can obey and praise him. Period. For God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. 2 Timothy 1.7 So who did? Who did give us a spirit of fear? The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. John 10.10 The thief does. The enemy did. He gave us a spirit of fear. Why did we ever take it? And knowing it was a thing that was given to us from the outside, why are we keeping it? The Lord didn't want us to take it. The rest of John 10.10 says, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. The Lord is the one who saves us, who keeps our feet from getting caught in that snare. The Lord wants us to have good things, not bad things. If there is a bad thing in your life, God did not give it to you. God can use it if you let him. God can turn that bad thing to a good thing if you let him. But he doesn't want you to have it a moment longer than you choose to have it. But God doesn't operate as we operate. God is timeless, and we are stuck inside of time. That's why we have Holy Spirit to enable us to endure. Hebrews 10.36, James 1.2-3, Colossians 1.11, and Romans 12.12, among others. Things can take some time to manifest in the natural what immediately happens in the spiritual. And the tool we have to accomplish that in him and through him is prayer. Philippians 4.6-7. We are not to sit there saying, well, I guess I just need to endure. The Lord knows when he'll take it from us. No, we are to pray and praise and thank him through all of it by the leading of the Holy Spirit. He will take it from you the minute you say. It will manifest the moment. It is right for everyone involved in this situation to the glory of the Lord and the best God solution to that situation. But if you trust in the Lord, there's nothing to fear. You don't need to fear what you know is coming, not what you think might be coming, and not what you don't know is coming, but is coming nonetheless. We aren't to be worried or dwell on anything but God. We read Psalm 91 until we believe those words. Then anytime anything shows up from taxes to bad packing to cancer to a stubbed toe to a sniffly nose to gunshots and bombs, we say those words and we walk in them for as long as we need to. Remember that the Lord gave us choice. Deuteronomy 30, 15 to 20. We have the ability to say what we will experience. God will never assume. He gives us the choice to say yes or no. God is a just God. He advises, but he does not force. He gave us the power to choose. In order to stay true to what he has said, he will not let himself assume. We must say. That's why we're told to ask him for things, Mark 11, 24, and also that God knows what we need before we do, Matthew 6, 8. It isn't contradiction. It's confirmation. We're acknowledging God knows best. He is our source. He is our Lord, and he is our all. We're confirming our choice verbally before the throne of the most high and taking from his outstretched hands all that he has prepared for us to enjoy. First in the spirit, then in the body, and then in our lives. Tell the Lord he is your shield and rampart. Say out loud that Jesus is the name above all names, that he is your Lord. He is the Lord of Lords. Be great. I am, and that your trust and faith is in him. Believe it. Receive it and praise the Lord. If your troubles kill you, then they did you a favor and praise Jesus. You're with him. If they pass around you like water around a rock, praise Jesus. He did it. Either way, Jesus is wonderful and deserving of being praised. If you miss it and fall on your face a lot, you'll get to heaven, and he'll kiss the wounds and tell you how proud he is of you for walking in it. If you succeed and enjoy great victory in the natural and blessing, you'll get to heaven, and he'll kiss the wounds and tell you how proud he is of you for walking in it. Our performance does not affect his love, support, affection, or how he sees us, even as he prefers that we walk in his ways, his way. You may be thinking that this is all just a bunch of hooey, that we can't have it both ways, that Jesus can either help or he can't, that you know Jesus can help, but you don't know if he will help, that his ways are mysterious and above our understanding, that you aren't sure you believe that he did help, that he did it all on Calvary. But I'm not asking you to believe, say, or do anything weird. I'm asking you to believe only what he says himself in his word. The Bible isn't a fairy book. It isn't a myth or a legend. We didn't make it up. We didn't create God. The word is truth. From first word to last word, it is a statement that is true in all possible worlds. God doesn't need us to prove him. He exists apart from us, whether we believe him or not. He is true. He is truth. He is. Since his word is true, believe what it says as it says it. Matthew 6, 9-13 is the Lord's Prayer, the guide that tells us we need to pray to get what is true in heaven instantly in the spirit, true on earth, in the natural, in and around us. Prayer bridges the gap between the throne and the ground around us. Trust and praise him in all circumstances, the ones we like and the ones we don't. Stand on the idea that the end result appearing where we can see it doesn't matter, that it is true now and will be true to us no matter when the manifestation occurs. They did it in the fiery furnace. They told that king their God could physically save them, and if he didn't physically save them, they would still obey their God. Total faith and the end result appearing didn't matter. Daniel 3. Jesus wants you safe, secure, prosperous, and healthy, period. That is the good news. Your choice if you take that into your spirit and pray it over into your life as your spirit person develops and strengthens. Decide to have total faith and praise him until you see it happen or you see his face, period. Love on God and the fears of life will melt away. Your foot will not be snagged. Our daily affirmation of God's love is 1 Corinthians 14, 15. Praise the Lord with your mind and your spirit. It's easy to do it when our spirit is soaring, but we should do it when we don't feel like it as well, perhaps even more so. Praise is a decision just like love is a decision, and praise is one that blends with God's love for us with amazing results. Jerry Savelle says, praise is the natural outflow of true faith in God's love. He's right, of course. When we understand that God loves us, when we choose to operate in the faith of that love, then we can't help but praise him. 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 loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.