Diamond Foreheads

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith in God. It emphasizes that fear is a choice and encourages focusing on the Lord to overcome negative feelings. It highlights examples from the Bible where ordinary people were supernaturally protected while carrying out their missions for God. The message is to not let fear hold you back and to step out in faith, knowing that God will protect and equip you. It concludes with the reminder that God loves us unconditionally and that His perfect love 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 Ezekiel 3.9 I have made your forehead as a diamond harder than flint. Don't be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. People don't always listen. Do you want to know a secret? It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. Who cares? It's not your problem, not your circus, not your issue. That does not mean to leave them hanging. That does not mean not to pray for them, or to stop looking for opportunities to share or speak into their lives. But when the Lord speaks to us and we are given something to say to someone, our only concern and responsibility is to obey the Lord. It is His problem if they listen or not. Our heart is for the people of this world, but our problem is only with ourselves. We are called to love one another, John 13.34, not judge one another. The world is a storm, and we are in it. But we are not of it. God helps us to spread the seed of the Word, but He takes care of it sprouting and growing. Not us. That is a very freeing idea. If we aren't responsible for making sure someone listens, there isn't the same pressure. Our only pressure is whether we're obeying God. So why fear them? Or being embarrassed to share? Or be worried about what they will think or say to us? Will we get weird looks, aggressive comments back, be mocked on social media? Who cares? When God gives us an assignment, He girds us for it. Ezekiel was going to speak to a very hostile group. What did God do? The Lord protected him, made him hard in the vulnerable bits. And He told him not to be fearful or dismayed at the dirty looks. In essence, He was told to preserve His love for the people in the face of their hostility. And God would protect him from harm. Now how did God do that? Not by removing him from the situation. Not by closing the mouths of the opposition. Not by making the people soften their hearts and accept the message. No. He changed Ezekiel. Made his forehead as a diamond, harder than flint. Made it so that their barbs and comments would not affect him. He told Ezekiel not to get dismayed at all the looks he'd get. Or to let himself get afraid. Yes, again, fear is a choice. Being dismayed is a choice. Anxiety is a choice. Depression is a choice. These are feelings that come against us and rise up inside us. But we don't have to give them the place they want. Because in Jesus, we can acknowledge they exist, but deny them the right to affect us. This is only possible if we put our thoughts into and onto something better. The Lord. Meditating on Jesus. Praising the Lord. Singing a song. Reciting a psalm. Making up a poem of praise. Praying. Reading the scripture. Or anything else that gets your mind on the Lord. Taking your thoughts off those negative feelings and putting them onto the Lord. Getting your emotions in line with Jesus. To help get our fleshy feelings in line with him. We don't need to let anxiety, stress, depression, worry, fear, or anything related to them get the best of us. We have a choice as to what we do with our thoughts and what we focus on. Our feelings aren't a choice. Our emotions, informed by our spirit, focused on Jesus and standing on the word, are a choice. On top of that, while we are operating in the tasks he has for us, we can enjoy supernatural protection and empowerment in Jesus. Esther was called upon to help her people by speaking to the king. Without his permission to be in his presence. In every version of the story I have ever read, this was a nerve-wracking experience. The king could order her killed for daring to come into his presence without being summoned. Esther had to work up the courage to do it. It took days. But she did. And she was protected. She was able to be in the place to help her people. She was protected as she spoke her words and pleaded her case. Her words changed the course of her entire nation, not just her own people. She was protected, but the situation wasn't softened for her. She was protected. Ordinary woman, supernatural ability. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel 3, 16-28, had a choice. Do what they knew was right. What they knew, mind you, not what they were told to do. They had no direct commandment from the Lord on this. So they could do what was right. Or they could do what the king wanted. They followed the written word of the Lord on it. They followed Torah. And they got tossed into a furnace. They weren't removed from the situation. They weren't told they were covered or that they were going to be saved. They believed God could save them, but they were willing to die if he didn't. And in they went. They were protected, but nothing else had changed. The king was just as angry. The furnace was just as hot. Heading into it, it was just as uncomfortable, scary, and all around terrifying as it could be. They were the ones changed. Ordinary man, supernatural ability. David was a young man of maybe 16 when he killed wild animals. 1 Samuel 17, 34-36. He was an accomplished man with a sling, as he proves with Goliath, but that's not how he killed them. He carried a hefty and solid staff, the standard item of protection and guidance used by shepherds the world over. He didn't use it. No, he grabbed them by the hairs of their chin and slapped them down. That's right. In both instances, bear and lion, he smacked them around. Now, I don't care if David looked like Schwarzenegger Jr., and there's a lot of evidence that quite the opposite was true. You don't take down wild animals by slapping their mouths. But he did because in the discharge of his duties, this young man who loved and worshipped the Lord was protected. He was granted strength beyond his abilities, beyond his possibilities, and he achieved by the Lord. Ordinary boy, supernatural ability. Now look at Samson, Judges 13-16. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us what he looked like, except that his hair was uncut. We aren't told his skin color, height, weight, eye color, or anything. What did he look like? We don't know. What do we know? That his enemies were baffled about the source of his strength, Judges 16, verse 5. Now does this mean that he looked all muscley, but he did things beyond human endurance? Maybe. Does this mean that he looked like an ordinary man, probably at least fit, but was able to do things Mr. Universe only dreams of? Maybe. What do we know? That the vow of the Nazirite, which included not cutting his hair, separated him out for God, and in that he was protected, able to perform great feats of strength in his role as judge of the people for the Lord. He still had things happen to him, but he was able to rise above that as long as he kept his vow to the Lord. Ordinary man, regardless of actual appearance, supernatural ability. Are you seeing a theme here? In the service of the Lord, doing what we are called to, we are protected. But Paul, Acts 28, 1-6, bitten by a deadly snake, but suffered no ill effects. He was still bitten. Probably wasn't fun. Probably fairly startling. But he was protected. Ordinary man, supernatural ability. What does Jesus say about all of this? Well, in Mark 16, 14-18, he is crystal clear. When we are operating in service to the Lord, walking out what we have been commanded to, we are under God's supernatural protection. He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the good news to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who disbelieves will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons. They will speak with new languages. They will take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Notice he doesn't promise no persecution. He doesn't promise no martyrs. He doesn't promise that everything will always be fine and dandy. He promises that while enacting the task set before them, the disciple of Jesus is covered and protected. Stephen is a great example of this. He was seized by the Sanhedrin on false testimony and put on trial, Acts 6, 8-7, 53. He gives a shortened but poignant history of the people of Israel, which includes some of my favorite scriptures. This wasn't a message that the Sanhedrin appreciated. In fact, what happens next is when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 7, verse 54. Do you think they waited until he was done to gnash their teeth, be cut to the heart, and get upset? Of course not. They were affected during the entire oration. They were chomping at the bit, foaming at the mouth, furious. But they did nothing. He was protected. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Verses 55-56. Then he was done. Message delivered, seed sown, Saul, who became Paul, was in attendance. Mission accomplished. Then they burst out of their seats. Then they seized Stephen. And then they stoned him. Verses 57-60. Guess what? Stephen was still protected. It says in verse 60 that Stephen fell asleep. Now the word used is used literally for sleep as well as figuratively for death. But when I was looking at the verses that it appears in metaphorically throughout the New Testament, there was a sense of peace with all of them. So it's possible, but not stated in the Word. It's not doctrine, this is opinion, that Stephen wasn't feeling his death. Maybe it was happening to his body, but not to him. Again, opinion, not doctrine. It doesn't say that in the Word. I just think that. The salient point is that as long as Stephen had a mission, he was supernaturally protected. And God was with him right to the end. Like Jesus on the cross, right up to the moment of his death, Stephen was praying for those coming against him. Ordinary people. Supernatural abilities as they carried out what they were called to. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4.13. Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. James 1.12. Therefore, let's also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let's run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don't grow weary, fainting in your souls. Hebrews 12.1-3. And whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3.23-24. Don't let fear hold you back. It's easy to look around and find people who don't like what you're doing or what it is you've been asked to do. If you are following what God has asked you to do, you cannot go wrong. Don't worry about criticism. Don't fear backlash. Step out in faith and do what the Lord has asked of you. God will protect you. God has equipped you to do what he's called you to. He may not make your forehead as a diamond, but he's given us the armor of God, which includes the shield of faith. Ephesians 6.10-18, especially verse 16. He has us covered. Walk in confidence. Walk in faith where he has asked you to go. If you couldn't be victorious, he wouldn't ask you to go. The Lord is a God of victory, not defeat. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Deuteronomy 8.8-20. Just as God promised his people, he promises us. Love him, and the blessings of heaven will flow on you. Don't forget his blessing, and don't forsake what got you here. There is so much that the Lord has for us in so many ways, especially spiritually, but also mentally, emotionally, physically. And to receive it is so simple. First, believe the word, all of it, as written, believe it. Second, love the Lord God with all your heart. Third, walk in his ways. That's pretty simple, and it's easy, at least according to Jesus, Matthew 11, 29-30. And it's available for every person on this earth. So what's stopping you? Let God love you. Let yourself love God. Only good things come from God. Nothing bad ever comes from God. Don't fear. Jesus is here. As we close, remember that you have birth. You are precious and valuable. He declared 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 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 he 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.