“May your unfailing love come to me, Lord,
your salvation, according to your promise;
then I can answer anyone who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.
Never take your word of truth from my mouth,
for I have put my hope in your laws.
I will always obey your law,
for ever and ever.
I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts.
I will speak of your statutes before kings
and will not be put to shame,
for I delight in your commands
because I love them.
I reach out for your commands, which I love,
that I may meditate on your decrees.” (Psalms 119:41-48 NIV)
God’s love never fails, even when we sometimes fail to follow after him and his ways as we ought. He promised salvation to all who love him, who have been called according to his purpose; to those who have been crucified with Jesus to their old way of living in sin and for self, who have been born anew of the Spirit of God, and who are now committed to living godly and holy lives in the power and the working of the Spirit within them.
Yet, our salvation does not mean we now live in absolute perfection. We are clay vessels. We still live in flesh bodies. And sometimes we fail. Yet, lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for continued deliberate and habitual sin, nor is God’s grace to be used as free license to continue in willful sin against God. His Word makes it real clear that if we say we have fellowship with God or we say we love God, and yet we continue in sinful lifestyles, we don’t really know God, and we are liars if we claim we do.
[Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6]
Yet, since we are followers of Jesus Christ, Satan loves to accuse us, and to taunt us, and to try to get us to live in bondage and not in freedom, and he enjoys attacking us with his lies, and with guilt trips, etc., even for the slightest of things we may have done or not done that may or may not be displeasing to God. In other words, he will make up stuff and create ideas in our minds that are lies he is trying to get us to believe so that we will doubt God and so that we will be fearful of what the future holds for us.
Yet, we should not ever ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, thinking that God’s grace means sin is not a big deal anymore, but we must discern when it is the Spirit convicting our hearts of sin, and when it is our enemy taunting us and trying to find ways to accuse us when truly we did not commit a sin. So, that is why we must put on the full armor of God so that we can come against Satan’s attacks and his lies against us with the truth of God’s word and with full assurance of faith. And we need to continue to speak the truth, and not give way to Satan’s lies.
But it isn’t just Satan and the things that he tries to whisper in our ears to get us to be afraid, but it is other humans, too, who are tricksters and manipulators and abusers and users and people who enjoy taunting others with the express purpose to try to make them afraid. We must not let their words upset us and to make us fearful over things which may or may not be really happening, and over which we have absolutely no control, even if they are really happening. But we must keep trusting the Lord in all things.
So, whenever Satan or other humans try to instill fear within us over things which may or may not be really happening we need to stop and evaluate what is really going on. Is this something we can prove? Or is it just conjecture? Is it just our emotions? Or is there definite substance to back up what we are feeling? Are we tired and not feeling well and so we are more vulnerable in our emotions? And is this anything that we can do anything about? If we can’t, then we need to just give it over to the Lord.
And then we need to walk in freedom from fear and not in fear. For our Lord has all things under his control, and there is not anything which comes into our lives that he cannot handle or that he didn’t know about in advance. And he is going to carry us through it, whatever it is, and so we must trust in the Lord and keep moving forward and not let the enemy of our souls convince us that we need to be afraid of anything or anyone. Now we need to be wise and discerning and not foolish, but we need to walk by faith and not in fear.
And if we are those who are sharing the truth of the gospel with other humans, we need to not fear their reactions to us, either, or what they may or may not do to us or say about us, for our lives are under God’s control, and he has that all handled. And I know that Satan likes to make Christians afraid to speak the truth of the gospel to others out of fear of what others might do to them. But we must never walk in fear, but we must live by and walk by faith in Jesus Christ and keep obeying him and doing his will.
[Matthew 10:24-28; Philippians 1:12-14; 2 Timothy 1:6-7; 1 Peter 3:13-17; Revelation 2:9-10; Acts 23:11; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10]
Do Not Fear
An Original Work / June 2, 2013
Based off John 14
Do not let your hearts fear.
Trust in God. Trust in Christ.
“In My house you will find
Many rooms I have
Prepared for you,
And I will come back
And take you to heav’n.”
“I will take you to be with Me;
You’ll be where I am.”
“I am the way and
The truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father,
Except he comes through Me,
So put your faith in Me,
And do all of what I command.”
“Whoever has My commands
And obeys them loves Me.”
“I did not leave you as orphans.
I sent you the Counselor;
The Holy Spirit to live in you.
He teaches you all things,
And He reminds you of Me.”
“My peace I give to you,
So do not fear, trust in Me.”
