Fear Not!: Joel 2:21

Joel 2:21 (King James Version)
Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things.

This scripture came to me as the scripture for the day. As I thought about it, it occurred to me that the scripture admonishes us to do three things:

1. Fear not
2. Be glad
3. And rejoice

Finally, it finishes with a promise that”the LORD will do great things.” Now when I looked this scripture up in other translations, almost all of them change the tense of that clause from “will do” to “has done”. Now, I’m not going to debate how this scripture was translated and what is the official version of the tense should be, but what I know is this… Fear is deadly and unprofitable. Lets not beat around the bush, it is sinful and it separates us from God.[Revelation 21:8] God does not want us to fear: 62 times in scripture we are told to “fear not”; 26 more times, we are told to “be not afraid”. Too often we short circuit our lives, our relationships, or our personal potential because of fear. Fear will cause many to not even try something new, others are tormented greatly (in one form or another) because of fear. [1 John 4:18]

I think that some of the fear we experience is our own faults… now don’t get me wrong, the devil and the world does it’s share to inflict terror, but because we don’t spend enough time in the Word of God edifying ourselves we make room for fear. See faith comes by the Word. [Romans 10:17] What many do not understand is that faith and fear are the same thing… they are reciprocal forces. Fear is just faith operating in the wrong direction, just as north is the reciprocal of south. Therefore, spending time in the Word grows our faith and expands our capacity to express the love of God, which will cast out fear. [1 John 4:18] See when something is full, nothing else can get in. Therefore, when we are full of the Word, there is not room for fear.
I think the next area that we miss it is by not being glad and rejoicing. This is linked to remembering all that God has already done for us and anticipating what He will do to us, for us, in us, and in our behalf for His Glory.

Father, we repent for giving place to fear and for not placing our undivided focus on you and your Word, which are one and the same. The Word is just another expression of your person…all of which are immutable and true! Father, we thank you that you are growing us up! We thank you for the progress already made in us and that we are better than when we first believed, and will be better still, growing from grace to grace, glory to glory. We rejoice and exalt you Oh Lord for all that you done for us to date and for all that you have yet to do in our lives, the lives of our loved ones, on our jobs, in our families, our relationships, our communities, our churches and even Lord, in our bodies, in our souls and spirits. We believe you to do great and mighty things and anxiously anticipate the manifestation!
In Jesus’ Name
Amen!