Peace and Fear

    I think much of my disturbance in peace revolves around fear - fear of what's left undone, fear of what balls I'm dropping, fear of being too busy or of not giving enough to children/family, work, church, GOD, the list goes on.  It's so easy to let fear of one thing or another grip our lives and rob our peace.  Therefore, my study has led me to search out all the verses related to not fearing and then the fear of the Lord.  I got out my large concordance and opened it to fear.  What should I find there but 3 pages - every line filled in my own handwriting with verses on "not fear" and then "fear of the Lord."  I guess I've looked down this road before.  Time to bring it home, search it out deeper.
  I started writing down everything these verses said - why we don't fear, what it looks like to fear the Lord - making notes by each verse.  The last few days, verses in Deuteronomy about the fear of the Lord have included a secondary phrase: "hold fast to Him" not "be held by Him," rest in His arms, but "hold fast to Him" in the mix of other commands: Deut. 13:4 "You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him."  There are six parts to this verse: 1. Walk after or follow after the Lord.  This means I have to see Him, know where He's going/leading, and He is not one who hides His intentions, though sometimes He is very hard to see, and we feel desperate to take the next step which has yet to be revealed.  In these times, desperate to know, to move forward but not knowing which direction forward is, we can be gripped with fear, lose sight of faith.  My dear friend and my own soul, He hasn't changed.  He will still be faithful.  Rest, wait as long as it takes in this place, for He will surely direct your steps.
    2. Fear Him.  You have read and seen what He does, what He can do.  Nothing is impossible for Him.  It is He who goes before us and fights for us to accomplish all of His purposes in and through us and NOTHING can stand in His way.  So in awe, tremble before the High and the Holy and worship in that place.  Let your faith be built here.
   3. Keep His commandments.  His Word is truth and obeying His commands as outlined in Scripture leads to life and joy and peace.  These commands are given because GOD who created us knows best what is optimal for LIFE; so, rather than leave us guessing about how to live life optimally and fulfilled, He wrote it down that we might know and obey - for OUR GOOD.
  4. Obey His voice.  This means, of course that we're expected to hear it.  We need revelation, prophecy, encounters in quiet places with the MOST HIGH that we might hear His voice and like Jesus, do what the Father says.  We need to hear that voice saying: "This is the way, walk in it." And the more we listen and step out in faith with every little Word He gives: "Don't do that/say that." Or a sudden remembrance of something you were supposed to do (Do it right away!!), or the name of a person on your heart - pray for them, give them a call.  Let them know that Jesus was thinking of them and put them on your heart.  Obeying every little prompting will help you grow in hearing His voice and that voice will get easier and easier to hear and the obedience will get easier despite the noise or your to do list be cause you've developed a habit of it and reaped it's reward!
  5. Serve Him.  I really think this ties so closely to obeying His voice.  Following every prompting of the Spirit is certainly serving Him.  Many times I think we can burn ourselves out serving - our families, our community, our friends, our church doing a million good things but missing the One thing.  Our serving then becomes overwhelming, burdensome and rather than being joyfully fulfilled and renewed in it, we burn out or become on edge and stressed out.  My friends, my soul, this is not what serving the Lord looks like.  This is not going from strength to strength and glory to glory.  So, start with hearing His voice and obeying that one step at a time.  Serving will flow naturally and His joy will be your strength.

   6. Finally, hold fast to Him: the phrase that caught my attention.  I don't know about you, but this tells me that it's going to be a wild ride.  There will be times that it's hard, my grip will loosen, and I'll need to tighten it.  It tells me that there will be forces trying to pull me away and distract me from the ONE THING.  It tells me I'm gonna need both hands clinging, so everything I do better be by His voice and command.  It tells me I'll need to concentrate, and that I'll need a lot of love and faith in His goodness, truth and worth: that the worth of Jesus will consume me and drive me on.  There will be times when the way is dark and difficult and He seems far away.  Then, we need to hold fast. There will be times your fingers are tired and faith is thin.  Then, we need to hold fast. There will be times we don't understand what He is doing. Then, we need to hold fast, and He'll hold fast to us.


I'll Keep Holding On To Jesus
I'll keep holding on to Jesus,
I'll keep holding on to Jesus
I'll keep holding to those precious
nail scarred hands.

Though I cannot see way clearly,
And my step become so weary
I'll keep holding to those precious
nail scarred hands.

As I walk the road of life toward Heaven,
Hills and valleys seem so hard to climb.
And if victory is a little slow in coming.
Remember the hands that held the nails
are still the same.

So I'll keep holding on to Jesus,
I'll keep holding on to Jesus
I'll keep holding to those precious
nail scarred hands.

Though I cannot see way clearly,
And my step become so weary
I'll keep holding to those precious
nail scarred hands.

Though sometimes the pathway seems so narrow,
Fear and doubt tend to crowd my mind.
But then I feel the gentle touch of Jesus.
He says: "Child, just keep holding to my hand."

So I'll keep holding on to Jesus,
I'll keep holding on to Jesus
I'll keep holding to those precious
nail scarred hands.

Though I cannot see way clearly,
And my step become so weary
I'll keep holding to those precious
nail scarred hands.

I'll keep holding
(x5)
to those precious
nail scarred hands.
Holding on to Jesus

Peace and trust

  Yesterday I got some news about an ongoing, very frustrating situation.  It was supposed to be resolved. We were finally reaching the end of a year-long "battle" that had intensified over the past 3 months.  With the extra money, time and multiple phone calls poured into this, the long awaited paperwork signaling resolution had arrived.   I opened it up. It was only half there.  They hadn't processed it all properly.  It's a weekend, no one to call and rant over the phone about the many in-competencies of the department, demanding immediate resolution.  Others expressing frustration toward this ongoing delayed process, and I'm stuck in the middle.  Helpless.  Beyond frustrated, and I cry out to God.  Why??  What is going on here?  In what way are you going to receive glory, fight for me, make "all things turn out for the good of those who love You"? I don't see it, and I'm so very tired of trying to explain and diffuse others' frustrations when I've reached the end of my patience as well.  What is this supposed to be teaching us, and can I please learn the lesson so that this never ending merry-go-round can stop!
   It's probably no mistake that my study on peace, which has led me to study the verses on the fear of the Lord and the words "do not fear", brought me to 2 Chronicles 20.  Jehoshaphat was king in Israel.  He had rid the land of idols and worked hard to turn Israel back to the Lord and establish righteous government that judged the people rightly, fearing the Lord.  Just after he had well-established this, he got rewarded.  News came that the people of Moab, Ammon plus others - a great multitude- was coming up in battle against him.  What?!  Is this how You reward those who seek You? This most certainly made him afraid, and so he did the one thing that he had been prepared to do.  He sought the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout the land.  All of Judah followed in his example and came together to seek the Lord.  Jehoshaphat, with total honesty before the Lord did 7 things: 1. He began by declaring who God is.  He affirmed the personal nature of God - "Lord God of our fathers" and the authority of God - "are you not God in heaven ruling over all the kingdoms and nations?"  And he affirmed His attributes.  2. Then, he reminded God (and more so himself) of all that God had done in power and might to save before.   3. He reconfirmed his commitment to seek God. 4. He laid out the problem before God.  5. He acknowledged His wisdom and ability above his own and asked for Divine intervention.
 
   Following this prayer, the Spirit of God spoke through a prophet "Don't be afraid, God's got this." Or something very much like that.  6. Jehoshaphat believed in God's Word and entered into the battle with worship.  7.  He saw God fight for him and completely vanquish the enemy.  In fact, the report is that when they began to sing and praise, "the Lord set ambushes against the people...who had come up against Judah, and they were defeated...they helped destroy one another...No one had escaped."  So that when Judah came up to a place overlooking the valley, all they saw were dead bodies and they went and plundered the whole army By the way, who wears precious jewelry into battle?  Are you really going to get dressed up in fancy jewelry to fight a war?  This shows the extent of God's humor and the way. He goes above and beyond His people's prayers and needs and abundantly blesses those who choose to seek Him in the midst of their fears and radically trust His word - letting praise precede the victory. 

Trust and Obey

1. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
   What a glory He sheds on our way!
   While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
   And with all who will trust and obey.
   • Refrain:
     Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
     To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
2. Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies, 
   But His smile quickly drives it away;    ( now this line always bothered me.  It's not always
   Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,          quick.  Sometimes we have to walk out
   Can abide while we trust and obey.                 long steps of faith to see His salvation)
3. Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
   But our toil He doth richly repay;
   Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
   But is blessed if we trust and obey.
4. But we never can prove the delights of His love
   Until all on the altar we lay;
   For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
   Are for them who will trust and obey.
5. Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,
   Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
   What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
   Never fear, only trust and obey.

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