Fear Not...year's end meditations

https://billrandles.wordpress.com/2020/12/27/fear-not-a-years-end-meditation/ ^ | 12-26-20 | Bill Randles

[pastorbillrandles]

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. ( I John 4:18-19)

Do Not Fear for I am with you, Be not anxious for I am your God. I will uphold you, surely I will help you, surely I’ll deliver you with my righteous right hand…” (Isaiah 41:10)

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4)

I have been pondering the events of the previous year, (actually the previous three or four years) , and praying for a Word from the LORD that I can pass on to you my readers, my precious brothers and sisters in Jesus.

The Word came, clear and simple and it was this, “Fear Not…”.

I believe that the prophetic program is intensifying, and that the birth pangs are coming closer together. This means that there will be potentially fearful things occurring all around us, just as we saw clearly in 2020.

The upheaval that the plague has wrought, and the fact that it possibly could be the result of biological warfare, could be quite fearful. Equally so is the way that our Governors and other politicians have seized upon this situation to exert Soviet level control over whole populations, is really unnerving.

But we are not to fear. The way to glorify God is to not succumb to terror or panic.

I think that the impeachment of a popularly elected president, and then the open theft of a national election in plain sight of everyone, could be an unnerving prospect. I have never seen such malice and such corruption in this country. To have to face it in it’s raw ugliness is really disturbing, to any thinking person. I have grandchildren to raise… .

Believe me when I tell you there will be more. The year 2020 was not an anomaly, nor was it like a bad patch of road that we have all thankfully gone past. We are on a prophetic trajectory, there is more to come, for Jesus told us,

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. ( Luke 21:28-29)

But we are not, under any circumstances to give way to fear.

I do not advocate a kind of “Don’t worry, be calm” stoicism, like those signs posted by the British Royalty during World War 2.

How can we obey the command to “Fear Not…” in the face of what is coming?

* Love delivers us from fear- “Perfect Love casts out Fear”…. . We must cling to God, and the Love He has revealed to us in the gospel, this is the basis for not fearing. Do you know that God loves you? Do you realize that it was love that sent Jesus to the cross, to die for you even while you were a sinner?

The knowledge of God’s love, and the consequent command to love others, even our deepest enemies, will bring us through these times, without having to be paralyzed by fear. Fix your soul on the gospel…preach it to yourself again… remember that the incarnation and the cross are the ultimate signs of God’s love to us.

“To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Revelation 1:5)

We must remain in the Love of God towards others- We are to Love whoever God has put into our lives. Some of those people are really easy to love, and some are difficult, and obnoxious. It is because God has loved us so freely, we are to love others, even those who are our enemies. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Epistle of Jude 21)

Believe it or not, the issue of Loving others has much to do with the issue of fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Hatred, resentment and unforgiveness open the doors to fear, because all of these are expressions of Self love. Those who give way to hatred and strife are those who will also be filled with many fears. No doubt there will be many opportunities to hate, but we must resist them and “Keep ourselves in the Love of God”. We must cultivate a healthy fear of God- It sounds counterintuitive but it is true, that the way to overcome the fear that leads to death, is to Fear God. There is an amazing passage in Exodus where Moses tells the people to fear not, and yet to fear God at the same time. The two go together; And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. (Exodus 20:20) The one who truly fears God need not fear man. The fear of the LORD is clean, (unlike normal fear) it endures forever, it will not corrupt your soul, instead it will en-noble it to face many trials and hardships. The Saints through the ages have demonstrated this in their patient enduring of suffering and hardship, rejection and even false accusation, as they awaited the vindication that comes from God.

Keep short accounts with God and man- My advice for this year, if you sin, confess it to God immediately and if you wrong anyone or have wronged anyone, go to them and admit you were wrong. Only those with a clear conscience will be able to endure. God forgives sin readily. Jesus died for our sins. There is grace for every relationship.

So keep short accounts, don’t let things build up, and whatever you do, stay in fellowship. We need each other, more now than ever! The church, with all of it’s faults and limitations, is God’s program. He has no “Plan B”, this is it! We work out our faith in community, and not as isolated, self contained units. Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father…” not “my Father”.

Being right with God, in both an immediate, day to day sense, as well as in an overall salvific sense, is called being “established in Righteousness”. It imparts a deep confidence in God, a knowledge that is not presumption but reality, that there is nothing that has come between our loving heavenly Father, and us.

This is brought out powerfully in Psalm 112, which speaks of the man who truly trusts in the LORD,

…Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.(Psalm 112:6-8)

Remember that we have a God, who is good and whose nature it is to save and redeem. No matter what happens, even if we should die… We win. Jesus has overcome sin and death for us on the cross, death is not final, we overcome.

If I didn’t have Jesus, and didn’t know that I had peace with God, having been justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus… I really would fear. I would have much reason to fear. The whole world is collapsing. All of the comforts, joys , freedoms and privileges of our lives in the West and eroding. We have thieves and swindlers for national leaders, and they the so called “Kings of the earth” are following an Agenda that ends with the AntiChrist. Any thinking man should fear, if He isn’t saved.

Finally, to you who may have come upon this message who are thinking, “I do not know if I am right with God”, listen, It is in the simplicity of realizing that you are truly a sinner, and that Jesus died for your sins, and in believing that God raised Jesus from the dead, that is how a person is saved .

If you confess with your mouth, the LORD Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…for whosoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved”,(Romns 10:8-13)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thank you! BUMP For Morning Coffee & Contemplation. :)

[sauropod]

Thank you for posting this, pastor.

[left that other site]

Amen!

Blessed New Year to YOU!