Without Fear

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

WITHOUT FEAR 

Luke 1:67-80

67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

 68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),  71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— 72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

NIV

 

Salvation is from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us. We would think the only true enemy we have is the devil, although it goes beyond just him, as we see in the letter to the Ephesians when we are told the battle is not about flesh and blood it is against the rulers, the authorities, the forces of this dark world and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly, or spiritual realm. Of course, it is the devil who schemes against us, and in whose hand, we once were held captive. However, salvation frees us from the devil’s hand, or his grip upon us. The devil surely hates Jesus, and thus because we are in Christ, he hates us too. However, we are free of his grip on our lives because of God's salvation through Jesus Christ. We remember the great fear we once felt as we served the purpose of the devil as his grip was firmly upon us. We were living in this world without hope, our future was grim at best, for death held us captive with fear. Praise God, all the fear is gone, for we are now free to serve the Lord without any fear. When Jesus told us that he gives us His peace, not as the world does, He gives us peace with God. We know this distinct meaning of peace, which is particular for us as believers is the tranquil state of our soul, assured of our salvation through Jesus Christ and thus fearing nothing from God and living content in our lives no matter what situation or condition is our lot in this life. All fear is gone because He has both declared us holy and blameless in his sight and enabled us to serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives. Getting this deep down in our very being, we can genuinely rejoice forever, and if our heart is full of rejoicing because of our freedom through our salvation, and without fear, then we would think our whole continence would show it. We would walk and talk with gladness in our voice, and our glow, our radiance, our reflection of God could not be contained, for unlike Moses who had to veil his face until the glow diminished, we live with unveiled faces so that we can fully reflect the glory of God because of our salvation.