Day 334: Proverbs 2:3-5

"Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." ~Proverbs 2:3-5, NIV

I'm going to give some hard knocks today: fearlessness is not a magical ability that God gives you once you reach level 50. It is an ability, created by practice, good choices, and a strong resolve to do what it is God has called us to.

Indeed, God can give it to you in greater abundance, if you ask for it, like the Proverbs suggest. If you look for it, if you seek it, then you will understand it, and better know how to make it a reality. God will bless you with that knowledge and more, and a greater grace to make it a part of you.

It's like an if/then equation - if you seek, if you try to make it happen, then God's grace will better enable it to occur. Almost every action of God starts with an action of yours. He can only do what you allow Him to in you. When you take that first step towards Him, though, He comes running like the father to that prodigal son.

Day 301: Nehemiah 6:11

"But I said, 'Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!'" ~Nehemiah 6:11, NIV

Nehemiah was faced with a prophesy that told him people were going to come kill him. The prophet told him to go into the temple - God's sacred place - even though he wasn't a priest, for sanctuary.

Nehemiah knew two things: going into the temple would be an act of cowardice (he had been assaulted for doing God's work before, as we may remember from yesterday), and the prophesy could not have been true.

He had been given God's promise, a burden to carry. He could have run - it was the self-preserving thing to do - but it was not God's will for him. And neither is it God's will for his children, us.

God has a purpose for you, and it isn't to run away. He wants you to become His strong child, wise in His ways. There is a time for escape (Paul did it, Jesus did it) and there is always a time to stand for what you know to be true.

Choose your battles wisely, but don't run - just don't fight them all. And know the truth, so that lies don't intimidate you.

Day 283: Isaiah 44:8

"Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one." ~Isaiah 44:8, NIV

In v7, God challenges the Israelites to find a god like Him. If there is one, they are to tell God about it. Then we come to the above verse, where God tells them to come boldly before Him. 

He was right, anyways. There is no God like Him who reached down to us so that we might be saved instead of asking us to reach up to the unreachable. There is no God who loved His people so much that He was willing to sacrifice a part of Himself to become one of us, much more to die and break through the gates of hell.

Do not be afraid to come before this God who loves you so much, nor to obey Him. All history witnesses to Him. All creation witnesses to Him. Could such perfection in balance and form come from chance?

And even if it could, is there any god like Him? And since there isn't, can't we come boldly, with respect to our Father?

Day 233: Psalm 73:18-19

"Surely you place [the wicked] on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!" ~Psalm 73:18-19, NIV

A common problem for righteous people like Asaph is the unexplained success of the wicked. If God is good and does what is good for His righteous followers, then why is it that so often the bad guys with no morals end up successful, with money, security, and everything they ever wanted? Why doesn't God smite the wicked for their evils and bless the righteous?

Why is it that the best people in life are beaten down by tyrants? Doesn't God see it? Doesn't God act on it? It would seem, in this psalm 73, that no, He doesn't. Wouldn't that then suggest that God is not good?

Actually, it just reflects that God allows all men to have a free will, and to choose whether or not they follow Him. In God, the righteous have confidence and security for all times, but those who don't follow God have no such thing. If that's you, Satan can, at any moment, sweep you away in a wave of terrors. With God, however, you can weather any storm.

You as His child don't need to fear what the wicked have to fear - a lake of fire, the loss of all of your acquired goods, etc. Besides, as v25 proclaims, "Earth has nothing I desire except for God." There's nothing here except for time to get to know God to the extent of your limited human mind.

You're not wicked. You, then, will not fall to their terrors, and better yet, you can pray for them and have God create a clean heart in you to reach out in His love and snatch them from disaster. Which is pretty awesome.