“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philipians 4:6-7
If you have lived very long, you have felt fear. And if you have lived long enough, you have endured numbing terror. The kind of terror that paralyzes the mind, creates inaction and robs you of sleep.
I have experienced that kind of fear several times in my life. Some situations really frighten me, and I don’t know why. It seems that the worst fear I experience revolves around love, particularly when I love someone, and especially when it involves my children.
I have no explaination for that.
My family is important to me. My family is in fact the most important thing on earth to me. Not more important than my relationship with my Father, but second only to that. Just as I am willing to live and die for my Father, so I am willing to live and die for my family.
How Important?
One of the best examples I can give you is this one: When I was 19 years old I bought a motorcycle, a big, beautiful coast-to-coast highway road bike. I loved that machine then, and I still love it just as much today. But when I was 19, I was racing a friend of mine and got caught in some gravel on the shoulder of the road as I was passing a car on the right in order to smoke my buddy behind me.
I ran off the road, flew over a 0ne or two foot drop-off that had been graded out to build a driveway, hit the opposite side and flipped my bike way up in the air. My friend, Lane McCarty, was the one I was racing and he told me in the hospital that my bike flipped end over end three times.
The Texas DPS trooper told me that he estimated my speed at impact to be around 70 miles per hour.
I broke the windshield with my face, and bent the handlebars down around the gas tank when I hit that opposite embankment. But as I flew off that motorcycle I had one thing on my mind: My family. Not my mom, dad, sisters and brother (love you, Tim. You too, John.), but the family I wanted someday. And as I flew through the air, I didn’t ask Yahuah to save me. No, I told Him that I wanted a family and an education.
He gave.
After that explosive crash on my beloved motorcycle, I broke my back. But not the crippling snapped-backbone kind of break. I crushed parts of a couple of vertebrae and was in the hospital for a week. 42 years later, I climb mountains, backpack for a week at a time, ride mountain bikes very aggressively, and still crash. My six year-old son crashed me two days ago when he and I were riding. He’s going to be a super mountain bike rider and he caused me to flip over my bars and hit the ground rolling. Didn’t get even a scratch, bruise or sore spot.
Nathan was elated. He asked me if anyone had ever crashed me like that before, and crowed like some champion when he learned that he was the first. He had crossed in front of me and his rear wheel had impacted he front half of my front wheel, twisting my handlebars to the right hard and fast. I had no choice but to go down, because otherwise it was going to be him that went down.
But I have crashed before 🙂
So what does all this have to do with fear?
Yahusha tells us not to fear. He instructs us to be fearless over and over again, and He is not just talking. He really means what He says. Be fearless.
He knows what is going down in this world. He knows precisely what the satan plans to do, and how wild the world will become, yet still He says “be unafraid”. Fear then is unbelief. Fear then is an act of faithlessness. Fear then is anti-christ within us. Fear is when we claim ourselves for ourselves and deny Christ.
If He says do not do it but we do it, are we not anti-christ? Sure.
So what is the outcome of this fearlessness?
Good question.
Fearlessness is the act of being brave when you are scared. In fact, I told my wife recently that one cannot be brave unless one is first afraid. Bravery is only present when fear is experienced and conquered by actions, by acting in faith. So fear is fuel for bravery, and bravery is a tool of Righteousness.
How so, Jerry?
Bravery propels us forward into battle against whatever we fear. Bravery empowers and enables. Bravery is like Clark Kent ripping his shirt off to go fight Lex Luthor. We rip off that cloak of fear and surge forward into brave war against our enemy.
Recently I had a situation that made me very afraid. I was scared, as it involved my family and you know what a nut I am for my family. And folks, I was absolutely powerless in this situation and had no choice but to give it to Yahuah. So I did.
I gave the entire situation to Him and brothers and sisters, I am telling you that when I let it go, I LET IT GO. I remember going to bed that night with a big smile on my face because I did not retain one single element of my fear. You know how we like to hold onto some part of a bad deal in order to worry about it? I didn’t do that. Every morning when I woke up, I thanked Yahuah for loving me and for taking care of me.
In a few days, maybe about a week, do you know that the terror of a bad situation was completely gone? No remnant of that situation existed. No scar of it. No nothing. I was as free as a bird and blessed so richly. It was a terrific experience and I learned that letting go of something painful and relying on Yahuah to handle it is the best possible way to live.
So I’m sticking with that.
If you are in a bit of a pickle, give it to Yahuah and trust His outcome. It might be sweet, simple and clean, or it might be drawn out and complicated. That’s cool, because if you are His and you have a relationship with Him, it will end well. You will like it, even if you suffer along the way.
Yes, just because you give the situation to Yahuah does not mean you will be unscarred by the process. I was unscarred by that particular situation, but getting hurt by a situation that you give to Yahuah is just fine. Continue to trust Him and carry on. Remember that Yahusha prayed to His Father that Yahuah would relieve Yahusha of the cross. Yahusha didn’t want to go through His situation. remember? But Yahusha said “Nevertheless, not my Will, but thy will, oh Father.”
He got scarred up by His surrender and His faith, but look at Him now. He walked out of that tomb radiant, perfect and sitting at the right hand of His Father 🙂
That’s what I call a good outcome.
All from faith. Fearless. Obedient. Utterly trusting His Father.
So let us live that way.
In the tribulation that is beginning, we will be hated, hunted and killed. Our own children or spouses might turn us in to the killers. That’s just fine. Look, if your kids turn you in there isn’t much more parenting you can do except to walk to the gallows with a smile on your face and total forgiveness in your heart, because you are mere steps away from the finest life you could possibly imagine. Run to that guillotine 🙂 That’s the gate to freedom.
Live fearlessly. In these damned dark days, do things you love. Invite friends over, play spades and drink a bottle or two of a good Merlot. Maybe buy that RV you have always wanted and sell your house. Go for walks. Rent a cabin by the lake and go fishing every morning. Ride a motorcycle as far as you can go. In short, live a joyful life. Trust Yahuah for everything. He has much more good in mind for you in these days than you suspect.
Go find it.
