All That Ever Could

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith. It discusses how fear can hold us down and how Satan uses fear to keep people down. It explores the story of Joseph and his brothers, who lived in fear of retribution from Joseph. It also discusses the tendency of believers to think that God is punishing them and the need to trust in God's love and redemption. It emphasizes that Jesus is our deliverer and redeemer, and through him, we can have peace, confidence, and boldness in the presence of God. 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 Genesis 45.4-8 Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, please. They came near. He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now don't be grieved nor angry with yourself that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years in which there will be no plowing and no harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by great deliverance. So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh, Lord of all his house. And ruler over all the land of Egypt. This seems like a great message for the brothers, something that would put their minds at ease, a restitution of relationship with Joseph. But they never had a great relationship with their brother. And from here to when their father Jacob died, they were fearful of retribution by Joseph. They lived in fear. I can understand why. From one point of view, this was a nightmare. This was worse than every bad thing that had ever happened to them in their lives so far. More than that, if they recalled the prophetic dreams of Joseph, Genesis 37, 5-11, it might appear that God was putting them in this position. The brother they had despised, plotted against, and sold into slavery was now before them, imbued with authority over them. Such authority that if Joseph had chosen to have them killed, no one would have blinked over it. They were totally and completely in his power. Genesis 42, 21-22 shows us that when adversity hit them, they immediately thought they were being punished because of what they had done to Joseph. This is before they realized who he was. When another adverse event hit in 42-28, they trembled in fear. They bemoaned their situation and knew that God had done it to them. Whether that was true was another matter. But they certainly believed that severe punishment from God was occurring. In 44-16, as things were coming to a head, Judah declares, What will we tell my Lord? What will we speak? How will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. These were people who clearly saw what their wrongs were. They believed that God was punishing them for them. They thought they were doomed because of their sin. Now why is it that as believers, members of the body of Christ, and enjoyers of the new covenant, we often think the same thing? That God is punishing us. Worse, we tend to be bitter toward God. How often have you or someone you know cried, Why is God doing this to me? I lost a child. The child was very young. I was not walking closely with the Lord at the time. I was within shouting distance of where I thought he was. But I wasn't on the same side of the street, as far as I could tell. Of course, that is a total lie of the enemy. Jesus said he would never leave us or forsake us. Hebrews 13.5 We are given the Holy Spirit who indwells us when we are saved. 1 Corinthians 3.16 The Lord God was as close to me as my own heart, but I wasn't seeing it that way. Now when I realized my child was gone, my soul seemed to empty. The world lost color. Intense horror and grief washed over me, drowned me. Do you know what I didn't think? God has this. I didn't conceive of that child being raised from the dead. Neither did anyone around me. It wasn't on our radar. We were firmly in the if God wills camp. Now the moment I looked into that tiny face and realized it was over, I cried out. I begged. Begged. What was I saying? Like really saying. Why me? Please no. Don't do this. As if the Lord God, merciful Yahweh, was killing my child. Or worse, letting my child die. Standing aside and just letting the horror happen. None of that was true. I was blind to the truth. To what was actually happening in the Spirit. And blind to the possibilities available to me as a child of God. Why me? It is the cry of the church. And it is an old cry. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden? Whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water. For the thing which I fear comes upon me. That which I am afraid of comes to me. I am not at ease. Neither am I quiet. Neither do I have rest. But trouble comes. Job spends a lot of time moaning. Wishing he hadn't been born, chapter 2, 11-12. Wishing that the day of his birth would cease from existence. Wiping him and everything that had happened to him away, chapter 2, 3-4. Almost immediately, chapter 6, and right after his friend responded to Job's wail from chapter 2. Job is claiming, why me? He asks whether these calamities can be weighed against his life, 6-2. As if to prove that all the bad far outweighs anything he could have done to deserve it. Now, he doesn't blame God. But he looks to God as the source of his woes. In 6-4. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me. This is a theme for Job. He doesn't sin with his mouth. He doesn't blame God. But what's in his heart spills out because he is very much about, why me? I'm good. I'm upright. I do the things. Why do the wicked prosper when the good are laid low? And often, he wishes for death to end the suffering. Now, interestingly, it is in this mindset that Job speaks words that sum up both the human condition and our desperate need. It becomes a very prophetic book, summing up the whole idea of the Bible in microcosm. He acknowledges that he has no strength or wisdom in the face of life. Chapter 6, 12-13. He acknowledges the need for a deliverer from his adversary and the need for a redeemer, 6-23. He realizes that in the scope of creation, humanity is nothing, really. And he wonders why the Lord has set his love on us, 7-17-18. In 7-21, he acknowledges only the Lord can forgive disobedience and take away iniquity. In 9-15, he says if he could, he would make supplication to a judge, but he knows that he cannot face the majesty of the Lord. He fears that he will be found guilty. And then, in an interesting verse, in 9-32-33. And in 13-1. Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God. In 19-25, Job acknowledges that he has a redeemer, but in the next verse, 26, he believes he could only see him after he died, because, of course, unrighteousness cannot dwell with righteousness. In 23-1-7, Job seeks an opportunity to reason with God, to set his case before Him. And if you think about it, is all of this not what Jesus does? 1 Corinthians 1-30, Because of Him you were in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Titus 2-14 tells us, It is Jesus who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. In Romans 5-8, But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 1-9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Philippians 4-6-7, In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2-5-6, For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony at the proper time. Ephesians 3-12, In him we have boldness, and access in confidence through our faith in him. Hebrews 4-14-16, Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let's hold tightly to our confession. For we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points, tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let's therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need. It is easy for us to blame God, to wail and cry out, to say we do good things, we try, why is the bad happening? But all of that is born out of fear, of despair, of the curse of sin. That isn't faith. Only good things come from the Father. Only good things come from God. Jesus told us we would have trouble because this world has trouble in it, not because God sends it. John 16-33, I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace, in the world you have trouble, but cheer up, I have overcome the world. There is trouble in life, but Jesus redeems us. He forgives us. He gives us confidence and boldness to be in the Father's presence. He gives us the ability to bring anything and everything before the Lord. He loves us and sets us apart in Himself, to be a people unto Him, to be a bride, to be children, favored, treasured, and whole. In Jesus, by grace, through faith, we can be with God. We can choose not to be angry or despairing. We can choose not to be discouraged, grieved, or to fear. We can look at the Lord and say, you have this, you have me. We can choose to believe what the Word says, that no matter what comes against us, we are in Him. No matter what trouble rears, strikes, or just lays across our path like a slug, He can take it and turn it and make it something to show His glory to this world in which we are a witness. Do not be discouraged. He is with us and has overcome the world. He overcomes what has happened, what could happen, what will happen, and all that possibly may even slightly maybe happen. He has it all. In Him, we have victory, blessing, and peace. Believe it, receive it, and walk in it today. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Galatians 5, 1-17. The world sees the church and it sees bondage, rules, avoidance of fun things, change. It sees levels of restriction that makes it wonder what kind of crazy Kool-Aid we're drinking. The truth is that we in the body of Christ operate in a level of freedom that they cannot understand because our freedom is a freedom from the flesh and all they see is flesh. It's a freedom from darkness, but darkness prevents them from seeing anything at all. We don't follow a series of rules of do's and don'ts. Rather, our capacity for doing don'ts and our desire for doing do's shifts from a rule-based paradigm to a make-God-smile environment. Instead of being bound to a behavior or school of thought, we are free to expand ourselves and our mind into real knowledge, truth, and revelation. Instead of avoiding the things the flesh craves, we pursue the things the spirit craves. Instead of being chained or restricted, we are free to do any and everything while being very aware of what obedience and disobedience to the will and the word of the Father will bring. We stay inside His yard because that is where joy, peace, love, and blessing thrive. Why be bound into flesh and ignorance when we can rise into spirit and truth by His grace and faith? Why stay mired when we can be free, clean, and able to lend a hand to those around us? We're not imprisoned in the freedom of the flesh. We're released into the freedom of service to Yahweh Most High by His love, by His grace. It's like walking in the sunshine after a month of monsoons. His love is so great toward us. It gives us true freedom. Enjoy it and model it. Let the world see what the love of God really brings. 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 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.