Fear is a powerful motivator; it causes us to change the way we see the world and our neighbor. In Revelation 6:9, the fifth seal is broken and the martyrs of the world are revealed. They, like us, are still so human and cry out to God for revenge. I know that when I live in fear I too want revenge for the wrongs that I perceive I have suffered. God's response is to give them white robes and tell them to rest until all who would be martyred have joined them. My human nature says this is the voice of a parent just making promises to a child just to quiet them; but the Spirit reminds me that God is faithful and his word is sure. We want to make sure we are revenged. God says wait. God says rest. I am often amazed at life and how out of balance it seems; people are massacred, children massacred at their schools, older persons massacred in a Bible study and yet God says wait, rest. We truly do not get it. This vision of the martyrs in heaven, under the throne, shows us those who have served and died in their service of God. They receive honor at the foot of His throne with the white robe and rest. They have died so that the Gospel would go forward.
We are afraid we will die and yet God calls us to come and die every day to our ego and our clinging to this life. We hear in Luke, we are to give our life away in order to save it. We live in a world full of fear and anger a world that is seeking to use these emotions to take us away from God. They keep us from serving because of what might happen to us, making us ineffective in the spreading of the gospel. God tells us to rest our cares in His grace and to serve in this world without fear for our lives. We are to be bold in this life each day living without fear because of the promise we have received. Let us be bold in service and speech, offering grace to the broken and downtrodden, setting the captives free and declaring the year of the Lord’s favor. (Isaiah 61) The evil one will threaten us and may even destroy us but we are secure in our salvation through the work of Christ in the world.
We are afraid we will die and yet God calls us to come and die every day to our ego and our clinging to this life. We hear in Luke, we are to give our life away in order to save it. We live in a world full of fear and anger a world that is seeking to use these emotions to take us away from God. They keep us from serving because of what might happen to us, making us ineffective in the spreading of the gospel. God tells us to rest our cares in His grace and to serve in this world without fear for our lives. We are to be bold in this life each day living without fear because of the promise we have received. Let us be bold in service and speech, offering grace to the broken and downtrodden, setting the captives free and declaring the year of the Lord’s favor. (Isaiah 61) The evil one will threaten us and may even destroy us but we are secure in our salvation through the work of Christ in the world.
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