True Confidence, not merely bravado

 

One of these days, before I depart this world, I would like to try sky-diving. I’m fairly certain that when I stand in the open door of the airplane my legs will be trembling, my heart pounding. It does defy good sense to jump into thin air, with life depending on a nylon parachute. But, I’d like to do it. I would never attempt it on my own! The only way is to be strapped to an experienced person who will guide me through the terror of the moment.

When we listen to the voice of the Lord, He often calls us to do things that push us beyond our comfort zone. Joshua, the man who was Moses’ assistant, found himself in charge of Israel after the leader’s death. In the first chapter of the book bearing his name, in the opening 9 verses the Lord says the same thing three times. “Be strong and courageous!”  In spite of all his years of experience and his faith, the new challenge must have been terrifying to him. So, God says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9, NIV)

How does the Lord encourage him for the new task?

He does not say, “Everything’s going to be easy.”  Conquering Canaan would not be a simple thing to do. 

Nor does He say, “My people are suddenly going to become compliant and easy to lead.” They were not and never would be! 

He said, “I will be with you!”

Disciple, the Lord is with us! "The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 118:6, NIV)  “God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6, NLT)

Accept that declaration by faith. Whether or not you sense Him, regardless of your emotions that may be churning, take His promise at face value and tell yourself – “God is here now!”

Joshua had experience with faith. For more than 40 years he had walked with God, loved His will, and pursued His ways. If we hope to live confidently in times of crisis, we need to live intimately with God now.  Trying to find sustaining faith when a hurricane blows through our life is nearly impossible if we have not built a relationship with God prior.  There are those who live carelessly, without any real ongoing desire for God’s Presence, who come running to church, crying, asking “Where is God?” when they run into a life-shattering situation. Desperately they seek a place of comfort. My heart breaks when I see their frantic reach for the peace that they know exists but that seems beyond their grasp.

So we need to steadily walk, keeping step with the Spirit, loving the Lord whole-heartedly today – so that when we are called to some hard task or when we find ourselves in the middle of the storm, we can go through it with assurance.

Here’s the word from the Word. “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." (John 14:15-17, NIV) “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:25-27, NIV)

Confident – not in our intelligence, our strength, because of our resources – but because we walk hand in hand with our Abba, we can change the world. Ready? Ours is true confidence, not mere bravado. Let’s do it.

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No Longer Slaves

(Zach Williams sings this amazing song in Harding Prison and it brings me to tears!)

You unravel me with a melody

You surround me with a song

Of deliverance from my enemies

Till all my fears are gone

I’m no longer a slave to fear

I am a child of God

I'm no longer a slave to fear

I am a child of God

From my mother's womb

You have chosen me

Love has called my name

I've been born again into Your family

Your blood flows through my veins

You split the sea so I could walk right through it

My fears were drowned in perfect love

You rescued me so I could stand and sing

I am a child of God

Brian Johnson | Joel Case | Jonathan David Helser

© 2014 Bethel Music Publishing

CCLI License # 810055

Fatness

One of America’s biggest health challenges today is obesity. We have so much food and apparently so little understanding of our physical frame that many of us are eating ourselves to death. Our blessings of plenty have become a curse. There is a parable in that for our spiritual health. I am not, by any stretch of imagination, a health-food fanatic, but I choose not to eat very much ‘junk’ food. Oh yes, I love snacks that are salty and rich in fats! Knowing that weakness, I just don’t keep them in the house. Sugary beverages are not on the menu either.  Drinking a glass full of 250 empty calories just doesn’t appeal to me.

I’ll leave nutritional advice to those who know the subject better than I do.  But, here is something I do know well. Even more important than what you put into your stomach is the ‘soul food’ that feeds your mind and heart!  How do you nourish your spirit?

Moses, at the end of his life, called the leaders of the people of Lord together and recited a long ‘song’ to them. (see Deuteronomy 32) He pointed out the ways that God had cared for them, describing their wonderful place in His love. Then, with the wisdom of the Spirit, he warned them of the perils that would come with the blessings of being a settled people in the Promised Land. "God made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape. Jeshurun (a name for Israel, the people of God) grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior."  (Deuteronomy 32:13-15, NIV)

When we take in the Word, understanding Who God is, aligning our lives to His will, we are blessed. The favor of the Lord is a great gift and leads us to a place of prosperity and contentment. Where we find ourselves contented, we risk neglect of the soul, and our blessings allow us to forget the very God Who provides them. We may become “Jeshurun;”  a fat, forgetful Christian. Worship will hold little attraction for us. Prayer can turn into an empty form if we allow our hearts to cool towards Him.  Sated by Pleasure, we can lose our desire for the Bread of Heaven. To ‘busy’ to serve, we will content ourselves to pay others while we remain on the sidelines.

What’s the answer?  Is it to live in perpetual misery? Must we live on the edge of desperation to remain faithful to God?  Not at all! 

When God blesses, the right response is to receive those gifts with gratitude, to remember how we came to the place of His favor so that we will continue to walk with Him, love Him, and to share the grace we’ve found with others.  The disciplines of the Spirit – worship, meditation, community, service, humility, generosity, fasting from time to time – will keep us from the falling in love with our Self, from slipping into the deadliness of spiritual obesity.

Has your life in the Spirit led you to a place of blessings? Wisely accept the wisdom that warns of becoming fat and forgetful, but do not fear.  Instead, with gratefulness that recognizes the source of those blessings, give yourself generously to God’s work.  You will then experience a life that is both rich and God-aware! 

Here’s a word from the Word. "God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God. " (2 Corinthians 9:8-11, The Message)

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Break Thou The Bread Of Life

(An a cappella version invites us to prayer)

Break Thou the bread of life

Dear Lord to me

As Thou didst break the loaves

Beside the sea

Within the sacred page

I seek Thee Lord

My Spirit pants for Thee

O living Word

Bless Thou the truth

Dear Lord to me to me

As Thou didst bless

The bread by Galilee

Then shall all bondage cease

All fetters fall

And I shall find my peace

My all in all

Thou art the bread of life

O Lord to me

Thy holy Word the truth

that saveth me

Give me to eat and

live with Thee above

Teach me to love Thy truth

for Thou art love

Mary Artemisia Lathbury

Public Domain

Though this world with devils filled

Yesterday, I stood at the bedside of an old saint whose awareness is gone, her brain tangled with Alzheimer’s Disease. It was a privilege to read the Scripture and pray for her, though I don’t think she knew who I was or why I was there. Walking to my car, I thought back several years to a time when she came to me for prayer as she realized she was descending into that ‘long good-bye.’  She was afraid of what was beyond her control. The memory broke my heart.  I also felt the chill of fear for a moment, “Jerry, what if …”   There is much that can make us afraid. Aging, sickness, death’s approach, the threat of war – a long, long list somewhat unique to each of us.

That is why God says this, over and over, throughout the Scripture: “Fear not!”  He keeps reminding us to look higher, to trust that He holds us secure in His hand.  In my reading this morning, Moses knows that he is near the end of his time of leadership. "Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:7-8, NIV)

Our fears are not baseless nor are they silly. Our flesh is frail. Our world is full of threats. The Devil is at work to destroy. Think about that and you will tremble. So, how can we live fearlessly? Never does God counsel us to ignore reality or to try to just ‘be positive.’  God says that we face our fears with the promise of His eternal Presence. “I go before you and will be with you.”  It was true for Israel, it is true for me. That elderly saint I visited yesterday is not alone, for the Spirit of the Lord surrounds her and she will be lifted to His Heaven where the awful will be forever forgotten. Let this declaration settle over you. "This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and He delivers them." (Psalm 34:6-7, NIV)

Martin Luther, in the great hymn of hope, included these lines:

And though this world with devils filled

Should threaten to undo us;

We will not fear for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us!

We will not always understand why He allows the darkness to encroach on our lives. But, we know Who He is. “O for grace to trust Him more!”

Fearful? Is your future uncertain?  In the word from the Word today, we read Paul’s affirmation of hope. He did not write from the Hilton Presidential suite in Rome, at the end of a string of unbroken triumphs, while waiting for a ceremony to recognize his amazing accomplishments. He penned these words to a younger pastor, while sitting in a dark prison cell, knowing that he was days from execution for his faith. Was he afraid? Was he asking somebody to please to do something to save him? You read the words and pray to know the same faith that conquers fear.

"So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  …Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that Day." (2 Timothy 1:8-12, NIV)

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A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

(A video from 1987 of Steve Green singing this great hymn)

A mighty fortress is our God

A bulwark never failing

Our helper He amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing

For still our ancient foe

Doth seek to work us woe

His craft and power are great

And armed with cruel hate

On earth is not his equal

Did we in our own strength confide

Our striving would be losing

Were not the right Man on our side

The Man of God's own choosing

Dost ask who that may be

Christ Jesus it is He

Lord Sabaoth His name

From age to age the same

And He must win the battle

And though this world

With devils filled

Should threaten to undo us

We will not fear

For God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us

The prince of darkness grim

We tremble not for him

His rage we can endure

For lo his doom is sure

One little word shall fell him

That word above all earthly pow'rs

No thanks to them abideth

The Spirit and the gifts are ours

Through Him who with us sideth

Let goods and kindred go

This mortal life also

The body they may kill

God's truth abideth still

His kingdom is forever

Martin Luther © Words: Public Domain