Not Troubled

Fear and anxiety are entrenched in our society. We can't help it! Or can we?

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isa 41:10 

When you go out against your enemies, and you see horses and chariots more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Deut 20:1 

Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

It seems to me that if God fills His words to us with such instructions as 'fear not', it must be possible to do so. Could it be that fear has become such an innate, automatic response that we would think of 'fear not' as a laughable suggestion?

Full-blown fear is as hard to control as an enraged bull, a stampede of elephants, a train at full speed: containing such a thing takes a lot of force, some serious time, and a lot of work. God is strong enough to commandeer your speeding train - much stronger than what we could ever be but from what God is saying, it seems that we could stop it from starting in the first place. I like that!

What strikes me most after the idea that fear could be a choice rather than an uncontrollable force is that our Heavenly Father hates the idea of us being afraid. He really really really doesn't want us to have troubled hearts. He is so serious about it that He would have Jesus invite us to go to Him and receive rest, that he would leave us His peace - as if it were a present on our doorstep, a key under the flowerpot, a loving note on the kitchen bench; He gives it to us.

Most people reading this would say, "Wow that's awesome!" then go away without really taking Him seriously and picking up His gift for keeps. What if we were to take Him seriously? Own it forever for ourselves? How different would life be?

Hebrews chapter 4 talks about entering the rest that God Himself is in today. He set the world in motion, He prepared the futures of billions of lives, pressed 'start' then sat back. He knows how things will end. He has put measures in place along the way to help us and be there for us - but He's not sweating it. He's not anxious about what will happen. He's at rest. And Hebrews chapter 4 says that God has promised that we can enter this same rest. The Israelites missed it by disobeying and not trusting God's strength, plan and ultimately His character. They didn't trust Hin, and therefore had no faith in the promise 'I am with you.'

But we can learn from them. We can live in the same measure of peace and rest that God is in, that Christ left with us, and lives in within our hearts. Will we take Him up on the offer?

This image courtesy from http://switchgaming.blogspot.com.au/2009/03/open-letter-to-game-developers.html. No copyright infringement intended - this image was found without copyright information.