God-fearing or God-afraid ?

Sometimes we think that the fear of God is just an 'Old Testament Thing'. The truth is that the same fear of God that the midwives had at the start of Exodus which made them spare the Hebrew babies, is the fear of God that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 10 when He told us 'Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28). Which is the same fear of God that Paul talks about in one of his letters when he teaches us to 'work towards complete holiness because we fear God' (2 Corinthians 7:1). Scripture is full of examples of fearing God being a positive thing. 

However, how many times does the Bible tell us to not be afraid? 365 times. 

And I know from my best friend's constant reminder that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). The problem arises when instead of fearing God out of reverence, we get afraid of God. Afraid of His perfect power. Afraid of His perfect will. I don't think that's what God has for us. He is our Father, He loves us, He doesn't want us to be scared of Him.

The Holy Spirit is God.

If you believe that statement please bear with me here.

The Holy Spirit is God. 

Perfect love comes only from God.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Perfect love casts out fear.

The Holy Spirit is God.

We don't need to be afraid of the Holy Spirit.

He is God. He is good. He works only for our good. 

Jesus told us as believers 'it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you' (John 16:7). Jesus told us that it was better that we have the Holy Spirit with us, than having Jesus with us. Jesus said that. Not me.

God is constant, He doesn't change.

This means that the Holy Spirit is constant, He doesn't change. 

He was there at creation, hovering over the water, and He is here now, within every believer. 

The idea that the Holy Spirit comes in crazy spurts here and there is just not biblical. Yes, sometimes the things that happen through the Holy Spirit are huge and crazy and miraculous, but that does not excuse the fact that He is ever present, ever working, ever comforting, ever counselling. I worry that when we constantly only seek God in the spectacular, we miss His beautiful work in our everyday, simple lives! The Holy Spirit is steady - always present and always at work, whether in the spectacular or in the simple.

I know how very human I am, I know this might not make sense to you.

My prayer as always is that if there is something that God would want you to take from reading this that it would indeed take root, and if not: you'd forget you even opened the page.

My prayer for myself and for anyone who reads this is:

a) we would never forget to fear God, but that we wouldn't be afraid of Him

b) we would trust God because He only wants the best for His children, always

c) we wouldn't be scared of the Holy Spirit, because it is Him living in us that allows us to show people Jesus in our everyday living, it is Him that brings the words of the Bible so completely alive and it is Him who guides, comforts and intercedes for us, always.

will and grace

If you have ever talked to me, you will know I would love to be able to fast forward 10 years, just to see where I am, what I'm doing and who I'm with, then come straight back to the here and now. You see I tell myself that this wee fast-forward would give me peace, I'd know where I'm ending up so I wouldn't have to worry about whether to change uni course, or whether I should invest in that person. But as per usual, my ridiculousness is put in check by our good God, who promises me peace that surpasses understanding if I skip 10 years, trust in Him.

Something I have been struggling with since my eyes were opened to God is His will. Many times my best friend and I have discussed the free-will debate. God is sovereign, His will prevails, but we have free will, so whaaaaaaat? Round and round we go in circles. But the thing I would love to share today, is that God's will, will.

For the last few weeks I have been obsessed with working out God's will, I thought that if I could work out His entire will for my life, then I'd be able to write it down and tick off the boxes as I went along. Seriously keads? What kind of Father would actually let their child know everything they were going to do ever and then just leave them to it? Maybe this tick-box thing just always finds its way into my life because of how I was brought up, or maybe because even since Jesus' time we have realized that a check list is easier than relationship... 

'If only I knew God's will, then I could do God's will'. I admit that I have said this phrase, thought this phrase and heard this phrase without thinking much of it, in fact thinking it's a fair statement. While I'm left speculating continually over whether something is God's will for me or not, there is so much of God's will already revealed to us in the Bible.  I think that our duty is first to obey the will that God has already revealed, and not to ponder endlessly on what His hidden will for us might be. I really don't believe our God is a God of 'what if's'.

Then when we are living in line with His revealed will, we'll be able to start seeing the parts of His will that are just for us. 

Romans 12:1-2 says this: 

'Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.  

We have to offer ourselves up first and then God's will becomes clear. It's not like a job description and you can have God's will if the times and places suit you. It's more like once you truly say 'Here I am God, send me' then He'll start showing you the job description.

Something lovely to end on is that sometimes we know what God wants us to do, maybe it's obvious, maybe you've been avoiding it for a week, or even a year, I just want to encourage you in telling you that for these times there is grace. And I would urge you that if you know what God wants for you, do it, because in obedience there is blessing. 

John 13:17 says this:

'Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them'