Fear cannot live with Faith

Jeremiah 7:16

Scriptures tell us that fear cannot live with faith, and in the book of Isaiah 41:10, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.”  But as I read Jeremiah 7:16, I am also reminded of Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” 

So let us explore Jeremiah 7:16 with this in mind, God is the same today as in Jeremiah’s time, and in that fact alone we have a nation that is in big trouble.  Listen to God’s instruction to Jeremiah, “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke declares the Lord? Is it not themselves, to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”

Now if that does not bring a tiny amount of fear into your soul, that God would tell His spokesperson to stop warning, to stop praying for them, for He has a gut full of their sins and disobedience.  Has your nation passed the point of no return, Judah had, and God would no longer listen to intercessions on behalf of the people of Judah.

Ask this question about your nation; what is the focus of our worship?   The probability of it being the queen of heaven is very slight, but it might be wealth, power, and control to deceive the poor and unlearned, and the highly educated that believe they are too smart to believe in a God who has authority over them.  Those are the ones that come up with stuff that requires more faith than I can muster.   The queen of heaven worship was the Assyrian – Babylonian goddess Ishtar and was introduced by King Manasseh, a very evil man. 

When you look up God’s attributes anger is not one that is going to jump off the page, but when the people of God turn from Him and begin to worship anything other than Him, those people are in for a look into this attribute.   We who go by the name Christian often look and act as if we believe God does not see the greed and dishonesty in our dealings with others?

From the Back Porch, 

Bob Rice