Fear Not

Celebrating The Future Now

Chapter 77

January 22


Psalm 71:20,23


20. Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.


23. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you--I whom you have delivered.


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Preface


At the point of our birth God gives to each of us a specific measure of faith. As with anything of value, it's our choice to either tap into it, invest it and expand it, or to bury and forget about it, covering it beneath deeper and deeper layers of fear. The choice we make depends on if we either 'respond' or 'react' to the events and circumstances we experience and in which we find ourselves along the course of life.


The choice of faith allows us the choice of response, a proactive approach to problem solving and interpersonal exchanges. A response is measured by the degree of control present. The mindset of faith provides a greater measure of control. We're able to drive our thoughts, feelings, words and behavior. Over time we cultivate our 'ability to respond,' which is how we get responsibility and become responsible.


But the choice of fear pulls us out of the driver seat of our body, leaving 'reaction' in our place. This is how we give control over to fear's emotional demands, surrendering ourselves to the base animal instincts of the vessel we inhabit. Reaction by its very nature is negative, possessing only the ability to worsen problems and harm relationships. Fear handicaps our ability to respond, like a broken arm prevents an archer from shooting arrows on target.


Faith allows presence of mind to remain active amid any event or situation, showing us how to engage the moment in relationship to the ultimate goal we've set for ourselves in the future. This is like aligning the arrow's nocking point (past) with its tip (present) and these with the target (future).


In other words, faith prevents us from losing objectivity and from getting off track on our way to the primary objective of our life's mission.


If thoughts and feelings, such as those represented by fear and the flesh, would represent a momentary subjective redirect of our aim, threatening to pull us off target and compromise long-term goals, faith returns to us our internal conscious controls. Where fear stirs up the waters of emotion into wind and waves, threatening to cast us about and drown us, faith separates us from ego's connection to the storm, providing the means to look at the storm instead of identifying with it. Then, by us no longer 'being' the storm, we see it for what it is, quieting its threat to ridiculousness.


Fear only looks at the wind and waves. Faith looks at the end goal. (At Matthew 14:28-31, Peter did both, garnering the different results both bring.)


From the time we're born to when we've achieved old age, our mission is for the expansion of our faith. This expansion corresponds with our ability to forgive and love. It's about removing the fear that the world taught to us. The more of it that's removed, the more of the intended faith fills the void left behind. Then fear eventually is no longer present in any way that allows it to hinder faith's expression of love.


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The anonymous author of today's Psalm ("the psalmist") wrote that God "made me see." This comes from the Hebrew "ra a," to 'see,' which interestingly is also used elsewhere in the bible to mean "make to enjoy," e.g. Ecclesiastes 2:1,24;3:13;5:18, and to mean "joyfully," e.g. Ecclesiastes 9:9, Solomon being the only person to use it in this way. Solomon lets us know that this connotation exists inside the term, revealing an inherent choice present in how we can 'see' the troubles that arise in our lives.


"Troubles" comes from 'sara,' which represents the enemies of the internal emotional, physiological feelings born from extreme fear. 'Sara' is the emotional states of sorrow, anguish, distress, annoyance, and it's these feelings' accompanying tightness of chest and stomach pangs, translated as equaling those of child bearing.


"Many and bitter" come from 'rab' and 'ra.' 'Rab' means both 'abundance' and an 'archer' ('projection,' to shoot an arrow). Getting hit with negative emotions, then, can be likened to getting shot with an abundance of arrows.


The enemy can not get us to hate unless he can first get us to fear. Then he has to walk us up the ladder of fear through its incremental emotional expressions to get to the point of hate. He prods us, so to speak, up the ladder with arrows of emotional pain. And there's only one defense against the enemy's arrows: the shield of faith. So "...take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (Ephesians 6:16).


'Ra,' like with 'sara' ("troubles"), is also used for the emotional states of misery, sad and sorrow. But it has the added direct translation of 'bad,' 'evil,' as expressed as spoiling by breaking to pieces, making good for nothing. Analogously, a cup is useful. Smashing it makes it useless; at least, for its intended purpose.


It's through negative emotions, which are considered 'evil,' that the enemy smashes us to pieces, rendering us as God's vessels useless to the world. How else to turn the light off than to teach us through the world's example that we're supposed to feel negatively out loud in reaction to any and every single slight, offense or wrong we witness in the world? To do this is to replace the shield of faith with an open, receiving chest, ready and willing to be shot with every one of the enemy's arrows.


It's difficult to mustard any positive output when weighing ourselves down with pessimism and cynicism.


Any emotional state that hinders or handicaps our purpose of faith and love is considered 'bad,' 'evil.'


The psalmist tells us that he has experienced, and is experiencing, the type of feelings that he recognizes as enemies to his faith and to the ultimate aim of his life.


First and foremost, the psalmist says "In you, Lord, I have taken refuge" (71:1). It's from this primary position that the psalmist says, "Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel." When looked at side by side we realize that he's saying that he doesn't want to think and feel the way they do. He doesn't want their troubled, internal states to become his internal state. Instead, the psalmist wants his faith to be stronger than fear in order to prevent those in and of the world from pulling him down to their level.


From where he sits he can clearly see that he's far better positioned than they are. The height reveals the lifestyle circumstances and consequences of both positions at the same time.


If a dog is in a hay loft positioned to overlook the pig sty and it looks down at the pigs wallowing in the mud and waste, is the dog wrong for not wanting to go anywhere near that sty?


People, though, go down into the sty all the time. But too there are those who realize, like the prodigal son, that they could have a far better life in the lough above.


The perspective of faith provides a view that those in fear lack, providing the psalmist with the clear vision of what their way sounds and looks like, and of the life consequences such a way receives. And, sanely, he doesn't want anything to do with the way of fear.


And not going down the path of fear means first and foremost taking responsibility for our thoughts and feelings, having the negative ones corrected the moment they arise inside the body. Why? They're recognized for what they are: enemies trying to lead us down those paths that end in only destruction. This is the only purpose that negative feelings serve, in actuality, practically speaking. Any argument for them to the contrary can and will only come from the lowered perspective of fear itself, which is the enemy arguing for the enemy.


Destruction fights for destruction.


Rehabilitation works for rehabilitation.


Faith makes us into a sentry, standing guard over our mind and heart. Knowing how important such a job is, there's literally nothing and no one we'll allow to lower our guard when it comes to what thoughts and feelings we permit ourselves to entertain.


If only the world knew that it's not actually cool or helpful to have a negative feeling, opinion, or some catering to outrage in response to the events and circumstances with which it disagrees. This only starts the route toward a solution with a new, exasperating problem. It's like trying to cure a stubbed toe by hitting the thumb with a hammer.


The societal programming of fear is actually how nations are destroyed. We don't get division and hate and people making weapons of war to kill people without first entertaining within us the mental, emotional states born from out of fear.


The only way we can become like those in the world is by ruminating on, marinating in, and engaging or identifying with the thoughts and emotional states that they have predominantly storming within them. The world's not been properly taught the danger in which it places itself by entertaining such internal strife, nor the importance of learning how to extricate itself from that strife in real time.


Given enough time, the internal can only ever become the external. Learning this, we become hyper-vigilant about what we allow to go on within ourselves. But it's only with the mental/emotional state of what we've come to label as "faith" that we can position ourselves to maintain such vigilance. We have to rise above and outside of fear's destructive storms in order to change them into faith's productive calm.


We first learned how to create such storms within ourselves from the world's example. At some point we were called to freedom, being shown the way of faith. That call could have come as a result of simply no longer wanting to put up with the unnecessary hardship that fear tends to make of our lives. But once free, we learned the way of freedom, experiencing results that we, in our previous state of imprisonment, would never have thought possible.


Faith doesn't allow us to have anything against the people themselves, but it reveals they, like us, aren't intended for the type of thinking, feeling states that only serve to generate excuses to not forgive, to not love, to hate, divide, hold things against and to break what is united (all of us) in God into pieces, according to compartmentalizing, judgmental labels.


By dividing ourselves we conquer ourselves. By breaking ourselves into smaller and smaller pieces, we render ourselves useless.


To say "faith doesn't allow" doesn't mean it forbids. It means, when we're in the state of faith, our perspective's been elevated to a height that allows us to see more, possess more understanding, rendering the lower perspective levels of seeing things a mental, emotional impossibility. It would be like an adult looking at a baby and thinking, "I wonder how it would be to poop my pants?" Knowing better, it's not a mess we'll create.


Or it's the difference between children having a tantrum because they don't understand why they're not allowed to play with the rattle snake and the parent who's not going to get anywhere near the snake.


Jesus' faith was such He could look at all of the people screaming at Him, beating, torturing, crucifying Him, and say "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). Even the smallest aspect of fear would have pulled His mind, emotion perspective down a notch, making this level of faith an impossibility.


"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6).


To get to this level we have to do the internal work that allows our faith to mature fully. This work entails us letting go of the world's fear practices of holding grudges, wanting revenge and to see people punished. Fear wants to see punishment only from a state of hate, giving no thought to nor having any desire for affording the party's restoration to life, their rehabilitation and redemption.


"Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted" (Galatians 6:1).


"This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:17-18).


This should be a daily affirmation, helping us elevate our perspective and redirect our focus whenever it falters and gets off aim.


[Jesus] said to His disciples, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" (Mark 4:40)


"If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying 'I repent,' you must forgive them."


In response, "The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!'"


First, His teaching is for us to see where we are on the ladder of faith. It's not an excuse to be the brother or sister who's constantly sinning and repenting.


Second, what would our response have been to someone letting us down over and over again? Would we have asked for more faith in order to have the internal means to keep forgiving them? Or would we have indulged our lack of faith and cut them off with the typical fear-based justifications taught to us by the world?


The apostles recognized in that moment that their fear outweighed their faith, the latter not yet being where it should be to know love and forgiveness at the level Jesus spoke about.


"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 5:13-14).


Faith sees from the perspective of us toward others and the world. Fear sees from others and the world toward us.


From youth to old age the psalmist practiced faith over fear in response to many life challenges.


"For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb" (71:5-6). The latter point he makes is a revelation that only a mature state of faith provides. It's a realization, from the cultivated place of gratitude, that love is the first cause behind the processes of life. And this is the big-picture view to which fear blinds the mind's eye.


"I have become a sign to many; you are my strong refuge" (71:7). His consistency in faith over fear established him as an example within his community. He was a light, revealing a superior way to living for those who, without his example, may have only lived according to the limited dictates of the flesh, not knowing there was a better way. Because of this, he could call on God's help, who'd want to protect one of His lights in the world, preventing it from being dimmed for any reason.


If everyone learns and follows the way of the world, we'd wipe each other off the face of the planet. And it's only the way of fear that leads to that.


The psalmist consistently differentiated himself, as one awakened in faith, from those still asleep in the ways of fear:


"May my accusers perish in shame; may those who want to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace" (71:13). The psalmist isn't calling for the bodily death of those who lodge false accusations at him, revealed by his desire for those who'd intend him harm to essentially be embarrassed.


Analogously, fear can be thought of as a set of frequencies found along a spectrum. Each frequency has its own name. At its lowest frequency, fear's expressed as shame. At its highest, it's known as pride. False accusations fall around the higher resonances of fear, such as 'desire,' 'anger,' and 'pride,' each one a sequential step up the frequency ladder from the one before it. It's from these levels we get either jealousy, or competition for attention, for a position, or for material or reputational gain.


"Scorn" and "disgrace" are consequences received by peers in the community who're also operating according to fear's dictates. These peers, in line with their vibratory levels, relish opportunity to make fun of, ridicule, look down upon or scorn and condemn someone else in the fear club who's caught and made to vibrate at a lower frequency.


If someone is operating at a level that has them lodging false accusations or threatening harm against someone of faith were to suddenly have their frequency dropped to the level of shame, such a downshift would equate to that person effectively dying to who they were, becoming a new person who's represented by the lowest frequency.


Shame lacks the energy to accuse or commit violence. It's energy is too 'depressed' to do much of anything.


The psalmist asked for those aligned against him to essentially have the wind knocked out of them. Only then, at fear's rock bottom, may they realize the error of fear's way and look to seek out the light of faith's example and choose a superior way of living life, one that brings inside and out more peace, joy and love.


Comparatively, in the next verse the psalmist writes, "As for me, I will always have hope, I will praise you more and more" (71:14).


There's no hope in shame beyond wanting to be cured of its debilitating pain. And the only cure is sharing the reasons for and exemplifying gratitude and love.


Today's verse is just another way of saying, 'Whenever my position within Your lofty heights of faith and love falter or begins to fall, I realize I've taken the consequences of living according to faith and love for granted, and I return my conscious, awareness back to first cause.' Sometimes we have to be reminded to shift our focus back to minding the roots of the tree, instead of putting all of our focus on the fruit its producing.


The psalmist shows us the difference between complaint and gratitude. Fear collects and catalogs the challenging events and circumstances experienced in life, for the purpose of bringing them out and displaying them for all to see through the narrative of complaint. This feeds fear's ego, making it feel unique, like no one else understands 'what it's been through,' as with the child's perspective of it being the only one who knows hardship and pain. But faith records each victory experienced over all the challenges life's thrown at us. It's in this way either fear or faith is invested in and made to grow.


One of the things that fear fails to see is that the person through whom it complains is still here to complain. And that continued existence means that victory had to have occurred. Fear, again, like with the child's perspective, believes that 'nothing bad is ever supposed to happen to me.' Faith, on the other hand, as with Solomon's implication for the word "troubles," welcomes the challenge as the life coach needed to get our focus back on track and to expand our faith in order for us to become a brighter example of love and forgiveness, if only to prevent the world from destroying itself.


"Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand..." (2 Corinthians 10:15).


"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing" (2 Thessalonians 1:3).


The expanding "sphere of activity" is the activity of love. We can not grow faith without experiencing a corresponding expansion of Spiritual love.


Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci observed, "Great love is born from great knowledge of the thing loved."


Abraham, over the course of his many years, was able to gather many experiences with God, getting to know Him more and more. Consequently, think of Abraham's example of faith following God's promise to Sarah and him that she'd have a son:


"Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness.' The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Romans 4:19-24).


Two key words Paul provided are: "fact" and "strengthened." Abraham's age and Sarah's dead womb were facts. In the face of these facts, even over the course of waiting for years for God's promise to be realized, Abraham's faith only strengthened. It never faltered. But another key word is "persuaded." How would have Abraham been persuaded, if not from the compounding effect of trust cultivated through having never been let down.


If I without fail kept 99 promises in a row, representing every promise I'd ever made, would you suddenly doubt that I'd keep the hundredth promise? Or would the 99 persuade you that the hundredth was as good as kept?


Fear, on the other hand, likes to say, "At some point you gotta face the facts"; especially, when personal time tables are at play and not being met. Fear interprets this statement to mean, 'Give up on faith that it'll work out as promised and give into fear that it won't.' But why? To save ourselves from 'being let down?' The shift to fear is the only thing that can let us down.


Consider the difference between the synagogue leader, Jairus, and the crowd of people in his home: "...a synagogue leader came and knelt before Him and said, 'My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.'


"When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, 'Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.' But they laughed at Him. After the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up" (Matthew 9:18,23-25).


The synagogue leader, like the psalmist, and Abraham, had strong, unwavering faith. Based on what? The crowd relied solely on their limited past experiences. They failed to connect the girl's situation to what they'd heard about what Jesus demonstrated repetitively He could do in many other seemingly impossible situations. Jairus relied on his love for his daughter, which inspired a future/now vision of Jesus being able to raise her from the dead. He saw what could be done, so he saw it as having already been done.


Such an example of faith embodied what Jesus instructed when He said, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24).


Believe that we have already received it, knowing the future is now. That's the shift.


And since faith and love and forgiveness are interconnected, Jesus continued, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins" (Mark 11:25). If we lack the faith to forgive, then we lack the faith to believe that we've already received what we ask for in prayer. It's impossible to have one without the other. They're inextricably linked.


Fear says to drink poison in order to hurt someone else. The poison is unforgiveness.


Faith says to stop taking ourselves so seriously, throw the poison away and get on with our lives.


The psalmist could not have both held anything against anyone else and seen the future as now. He wrote, "My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you--I whom you have delivered. My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long, for those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame and confusion" (71:23-24).


"Whom you have delivered"--The future spoken in the past tense, his deliverance having already happened. This represents a confident-assurance developed over years of collected experiences of having been delivered from challenges in the past.


"Have been put to shame and confusion"--Again, the future stated in prayer as the past.


Faith establishes the future as the past in order to celebrate in the present. And no one died, giving those who wanted to harm the psalmist opportunity to repent and know redemption.