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Enjoy Life, Enjoy God


Dale Patterson

FEAR NO KING

June 10, 2009

Fear usually is a learned behavior. We grant fear, we cede power, to the object feared. My house dog, our collie, is not afraid when I shake my fist at her. She trusts me, she knows I've never hit her, and trusts me that I never will.

By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict....
By faith [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

- Hebrews 11:23,27 TNIV

My collie trusts me because I've proven myself to her, I'm trustworthy not to hurt her. Kings? That may be another matter. Moses' parents hid him from Pharaohs' death sentence, and they knew well the King of Egypt could fulfill any threat. Years later, Moses now a grown adult, knew the king could hurt him as well. Yet two times it says, they were not afraid. They were not afraid, not because the king was unable to harm them--oh, he could harm them for sure. But their destiny, their future was bigger than Pharaoh's powers.

Few of us need be frightened of kings. Yet many of us live with many fears, fears as real as any the King of Egypt embodied. We're afraid of our future, what it holds. We fear for our health, the well-being of our loved ones. But the reason Moses and family were not afraid was not because they were promised to be spared life's hardships, and inequities--but God would never, never abandon them. That's my invitation to you and me today as well. I do not know the fears you or I will encounter today. And some of those fears will be more than real. My invitation to us is not to be fear-less, but to rise above our fears. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. No king, no thing! Nothing. (Romans 8:39)
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson