Hope Is Not Wishing

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith in God. It emphasizes the importance of remembering what God has done in the past and having confidence in His promises. The Word of God is highlighted as a means of gaining faith and getting to know God's will. It emphasizes seeking the Lord, walking in obedience, and praying according to His word. The importance of relationship with God is emphasized, as well as the idea that all good things come from Him. The focus is on seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness, rather than worrying about material things. The passage encourages believers to trust in God's blessings and not doubt His ability to provide. 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 Deuteronomy 7.18-19 You shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God shall do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Memory is a wonderful thing. As we encounter jobs, issues, and tasks, our mind naturally thinks of similar things we've encountered. This either gives us confidence because we've succeeded in the past, or it makes us anxious because things did not go well the previous times. It's no different when all we do is include God. What did He do last time, we think. When we called out to Him, believing that He would do things, what did He accomplish? We put God in the same box as taxes, traffic, procedures, and the election cycle. That is not how we are to remember. That's not how we are called to remember. We need to take ourselves out of the equation. I challenge you to get into the Word. The Bible is full of His wonders, big ones and small ones. Everything from simple provision to the tearing down of strongholds, to the creation of the world, to the comfort of a widow. Everything you can imagine, every aspect of the human condition, every person who sought the Lord with honesty and their heart, found Him. God was ready to meet their needs, guide their steps, and bring them under the umbrella of His blessing. From Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21, Yahweh works to get humanity to accept the plans that He had from before the beginning of the universe to get humanity into communion with God Almighty. When we look at His wonders, how can we be afraid? Look at what He can do. Look at what is possible when we do things with God. What did Jesus say? With men it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Mark 10-27 When we do things in our own strength with each other, we're limited by the possible, by the natural. But when we join hands with the Almighty God and do them with Him, nothing is impossible. The Word is the beginning of that. Relationship should never be founded on passion. Passion is great, but it comes and goes. Relationship should be founded on knowledge. It doesn't matter if you're talking about something inanimate like a hobby, something communal like a church gathering or organization, a friendship, a business partnership, or a marriage. If you're focused on the immediate passionate feeling, you are most likely going to miss any warning signs. If you aren't willing to work through issues, differences, and opinions, that passion will not pull you through. Anything based on passion alone ultimately fails. We need to get to know the Lord and what He has for us. We need to get to know the Lord and what He wants to do for us. How do we know God? The Word. It is the number one way He reveals Himself in His will. In getting to know Him, we gain faith. Faith that God will do His part and faith that we can inhabit ours. That's the name of the game. Faith is the current of the kingdom, the spiritual oxygen that we live in. Romans 14.23 tells us that we are operating away from God when we're not operating in faith. What is faith at its most basic level? Hebrews 11.1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. Do not take this hope as our society takes things. Assurance is confidence. It's a promise. Hope, it isn't a wish for something to take place. Hope isn't wanting a result. In the kingdom of God, hope is expectation. Expecting is when you know it will happen, but it hasn't happened yet. The takeaway of this verse is that our faith is confidence in the promises of God that we know will come to pass, but haven't yet. That's what faith is at its core. It's our choice to believe that God is good for what he says he's good for. That's why we gain more faith by hearing the word of God, Romans 10.17. The more we hear, the more we open ourselves up to what God is and what God can do. The more we use faith, the more we are strengthened in our faith. We need to seek the Lord and dwell in the shelter of God, Psalm 91. We need to love him, know his name, call to him and make him our refuge. Not out of panic or desperation, out of love. To worship him and to seek his presence. If we do, there's nothing that will not be ours. Again, we're not looking at a bank account. We're looking at the whole picture of the whole human experience, body, spirit, soul. How can I say this kind of thing? Because it's scriptural. Hebrews 11.6 says, Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing to him. For he who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. That's getting saved 101. Revelation 6.6-7 says, But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches. Don't be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. That's blessing others because we're blessed. Sharing our assets, physical, emotional or financial, because we are to love one another and take care of one another. And what about Psalm 1.3? He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water that produces its fruit in season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. Who is this individual that all these verses refer to? The one who delights in Yahweh's law or word. They meditate on it day and night. They seek God and walk in his ways. When we are walking in obedience and seeking his will and praying according to his word, there is nothing he won't do for us. What is the prayer of the apostle John for the believer? For any and every believer? Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brothers came and testified about your truth, even as you walk in truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear about my children walking in truth. 3 John 2-4 Prosperity isn't about things. The things are the signpost for the world. Hey, they're doing well and I'm struggling. I wonder what they're doing. It's a draw to open conversations. Think of it this way. When we see a business person doing well, we ask what their stock portfolio strategy is. Same thing here. They have famine. We have food. They have poor finance. We seem to be building up. They have panic and worry over supply chain issues. We're calm and always seem to get what we need. They rage about gas prices. We calmly fill up with a smile, because somehow we always have enough to cover our bills. This is the kind of thing that draws attention. That makes them want to investigate how we do what we do. Which is awesome, because we're not even the ones doing it. Jesus says in Matthew 6-33, but seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. The focus isn't on things. The focus is putting down worry, anxiety, and fear. The focus is on seeking the Lord God Almighty, because when we seek the Lord, all the rest of it falls into its proper place. Because the foundation of everything is relationship with the Lord. When you meet a stranger on the street and they ask you for help, what do you give them? A couple of bucks? Some food? A blanket or two? Those all seem reasonable. But do you hand them the keys to your vehicle? Do you allow them to crash in your house? Do you give them access to your cupboards and your gadgets? No. We want to help those around us, but we fellowship with those we know. God wants to bless everyone, save everyone, and fellowship with everyone, but He can only do that with those who turn to Him. He cannot do it to those walking away from Him because He gave us free will. He let us choose. The key to unlocking the kingdom is to know God. Seek first God. When we're walking with Him in obedience and praying according to the Word, ideally praying the Word itself, as Jesus did, there is nothing He won't do with us. Look at what He's done already. Look at all the blessings you have received, the victories. All good things come from the Lord. All. Not just a few. Not just the supernatural. Everything. Do you suffer from chronic pain, but today you managed to put on clothes and make a cup of beverage? He did that with you. He rejoiced with you. He blessed you with that. It was good. All good comes from God. Has anything good happened in your life? Anything at all? It was the Lord. It was a gift. It was a blessing. He loves us so much, He cannot help but bless us. Looking at that sheer volume of things, why would we doubt that He would do it again? And this is not doing good as the world does good, as the enemy seeks for us to have good. Those goods are good in the moment, but have baggage attached to them for later. No. All of God's good things are purely good. So if you're one of the ones that suffers with chronic pain, He didn't give you that pain. But He gave you that moment where you overcame the pain and did a good thing and had something that you enjoyed. Now, it's a good thing from the Lord. Later, if your pain swells up again, that's not from Him. That's the enemy trying to steal the good thing. All good things come from the Lord. He loves us so much, He cannot help but bless us. Proper, full blessing with no negative side effects. Looking at that sheer volume of things that He does for us and with us, why would we doubt that He would do it again? That is the blessing of memory and perhaps why the enemy attacks memory so much. We have a need to remember. Why fear when we have such a great record of His works? He can do it. He's done it before. Dwell with Him and see what He does with you and for you. Remember what He has done. Check out His promises in the Word about your spiritual state, your physical state and your mental state. He is a good God and He doesn't make a promise He can't keep. We know He keeps them. Expect them to come true. Any promise that has come true is a down payment on the rest that have not yet but will. Seek Him and know that the promises will follow. Test Him and know that He is truth. Our daily affirmation of God's love. Song of Songs 1, 2-3 The word know has among its definitions the idea of having possession of exclusive knowledge or information, to recognize the nature of something, to be aware of the truth, to be convinced or certain of it. It was the underpinning of the Old Testament when talking about couples. I mean, yes, there was that sense of sexual intercourse, but the underpinning of it was that there was an intimate, unique knowledge between the two people. The Hebrew word yadah means to ascertain by seeing, observation, care and recognition, instruction and designation, to acknowledge and to be acquainted with. It is a knowledge of someone that goes beyond the physical to the qualities of the person which you observe, acknowledge and learn. In relation to marriages, it meant not to let passion be the sole guide of your match, to look beyond that to how you think on various matters, the traditions of your families and how you mesh with them and looking at the many issues that can confront you. It is a meeting of minds much more than it was a meeting of tingly bits. That is what God wants from us. He loves us. He wants us to love Him. He knows us. He wants us to know Him intimately, as if we were two lovers approaching a marital match. Song of Songs is a book of love between two humans, their marriage, their courtship, their enjoyment of each other. It is also a word picture of how God wants us to be with Him. No barriers. Full knowledge, enjoyment and exploration of each other. A mental assignation of values and traditions and patterns of both thought and morality. One of the perks of eternal life is that it will take an eternity to truly know God. But we get to start now. Today. Immediately. Thank you, Father, for the gift of your Son who enabled us to be co-heirs with Him and be truly in a place to know you intimately. Amen. 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.