Everything is useful to us. God allows the enemy to point out where the Lord wants us to triumph next. You have to love that! When God does that, it’s marvelous!
~ Graham Cooke
To Him Who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.” … I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud Voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” … Then I turned to see the Voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands One like a Son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around His chest. The hairs of His head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength…. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the Living One. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in Revelation 1
Oh beloved, it is true.
Fear is not only a liar. Fear is the thing that makes us a slave to everything that drives us away from G_d. Further, fear is the springboard upon which our flesh launches us into all the behaviors we know are going to cause us pain. But, we do them anyway with the false hope of bringing ourselves a moment of comfort.
Said more simply: Fear is a terrible enemy. And, the very Maker of Life has forbade us clearly from this enemy. We are to have nothing to do with it. So, when we give into it, it should be no surprise to us that the results are so disastrous.
Fear takes our eyes of Him and puts them on the waves.
Fear tempts us to put our agenda ahead of anyone else’s.
Fear breaks our concentration on the things that matter and puts them on the things that don’t.
Fear takes our focus off eternity and puts it into irrational temporality.
Fear pushes us to make decisions when waiting is necessary.
Fear drives us to believe lies, when the truth is right in front of us.
Fear is a slave master, when free-service to our King is available.
Can we see it?
Fear is a cheap weapon in the hands of the enemy of our souls. Fear looks so reasonable to our short-sighted eyes. Fear pushes up all the impulses we have that are not borne of Love. We get selfish, and angry, and guarded, and impulsive. But, all of this doesn’t set us free. No, in our rebellion, we allow ourselves to become again, slaves to a master that only delivers death (don’t listen to the promises, they are lies as bad as the fear).
However, The King of The Universe, upon His first talk with His best friend, John, after Jesus’ ascension, made it abundantly clear that the only sane basis of fear (Him) was not even to be considered as a candidate anymore. Oh yes, those of us who will willingly reject Him should and do see fear creeping up in our beings. But, anyone who will see Him for Who He is, can now be assured that even as King of All Creation, Jesus is no longer someone to be afraid of. Rather, we are now free to come alongside Him and serve alongside Him in His work of redeeming the world.
So, are you battling fear? Perhaps it is time to realize that the war is over. Fear is just using the only tactic it has to get you into its clutches: Lies. And, lies will never be true. But, Truth never changes, and He is calling you (and this fool of a writer) to a completely different way of living.
Tonight is your night. Time to leave your slavery and join your King in service to humanity.
Charles de Foucauld, the found of the Little Brothers of Jesus, wrote a single sentence that’s had a profound impact on my life. He said, “The one thing we owe absolutely to God is never to be afraid of anything.” Never to be afraid of anything, even death, which, after all, is but that final breakthrough into the open, waiting, outstretched arms of Abba.
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
