Fear and safety

This week our new puppy, Gilby (who is giving me much joy as well as distraction), met Rupert, the neighbour’s dog. Unsurprisingly, Gilby is looking up to me for reassurance.

Actually, it was completely safe as Rupert is a gentle giant. Look carefully and you will see that Rupert’s lead is on the ground. He is perfectly trained and there is nothing to fear.

What should we fear? It’s important to fear the right thing.

Fear can cripple us - fear of abandonment, fear of exposure, fear of rejection, fear of punishment, fear of what's ahead. But when we trust that God is God and that we are his, such fears are cast out by his love.

I guess we all have had moments where our minds plummets down dark tunnels about the future. You only need to google your sore elbow, read some dark scenarios and 2am that night, you see yourself in a coffin. We hear the news and fear can grip us. But when it comes to fearing the future, as Corrie Ten Boom said, don’t expect the train ticket before the time of the journey. When it came to her journey, into the heart of the Holocaust, that was when the ticket arrived and she found that God was there with her.

Does that mean all fear is bad? Well, no, if we don’t fear anything, we'd get into trouble - we need the good fear that stops us from drinking poison or putting our hands in the fire. It's not a bad thing to fear the results of inaction on our climate because it drives us to change.

There are some healthy fears but there is one fear more important than any other. Ultimately, we need a right fear of God, not one that makes us run from him, but one that makes us so fear a life without our Maker so instead we run into his arms.

Last week, I made an idiotic mistake and put diesel in our petrol car - argh!! Money in the bin. Can I blame new puppy distraction? Glad I wasn’t the customer that the repairman told me about who has done it 5 times! Glad I didn’t start the engine! But nonetheless, annoying! Because my petrol car won’t run on diesel. There are right ways to live and wrong ones; we are right to fear a life without God because we are not designed for it.

Jesus says, "My friends, don't be afraid of people. They can kill the body and after that they can do nothing more to hurt. I will show you the one to fear. You should fear God who has the power to kill you and also to throw you into hell. Yes he is the one you should fear."

Strong words and it's easy to skip them and just read the lovely verses that follow about the God who does not forget the sparrow.

No less a person than Jesus says that God is the one you should fear.

That makes fear of God a good thing. It turns out that godly fear is always liberating because it sends us to safety, to the one who cares for even the sparrow, to the one who cares for us. I've found that this holy fear can coexist with the deep security of knowing the father’s love. Godly fear is not cold terror but rather an awe of the Almighty that fills us with peace until every other fear flees.

The same Jesus calls us to come to him, until every dark fear that bound us is as harmless as Rupert,

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not fear." John 1

Let those words settle on your hearts.

I have just had a wonderful weekend with a group of ordinands. We delved into the blessing from Numbers 6 that I love so dearly - the blessing that lands with these words - THE LORD GIVE YOU HIS PEACE. As I prepared it, I thought how amazing it is that God has given me such an extraordinary degree of peace over the past 4 years - through bereavement, upheaval, moving, a brain tumour diagnosis (don’t panic - it has turned out to be benign), a heart diagnosis (hurray - I didn’t need an op after all). Of course I have had turbulent moments but God has kept me through it and I know that is because of all of you who prayed for. When we know he is higher, everything else is lower.

I am delighted that The Promise of Blessing Course is now available FREE here on the
BIG CHURCH READ with short videos and discussion questions for small groups. It has been brilliant seeing people blessed by the Eternity Course so I am praying that this will also have an impact!