This is part of the Five Minute Friday linkup. You set a timer and write for five minutes on the word prompt without editing.
I began in this linkup group in 2014 or 2015. Though I'm not a frequent contributor these days, tonight I'm in the group!
This week's word is "Cancel".
Though I'm tempted to vent my frustration as I live in a state with a high level of panic and a governor who has issued "mandates" through "emergency power" for the last 8 months straight and recently issued a "two week freeze", I am led a different direction.
"Cancel her debt," He said.
Paid in full.
How? I come from a poor family. I have no nobility, no inheritance. I would have been doomed to work off my debt as a slave until the day I breathed my last.
Instead, He looks at me with tender, loving eyes.
"And now, my daughter,
don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my
town know that you are a woman of noble character." (Ruth 3:11)
He is Boaz, I am Ruth.
He is Jesus, I am chosen, beloved, highly favored.
I choose to accept this gift.
I cancel sin and guilt and shame when they try to tell me that "that's your name."
Jesus has ransomed me, there is none closer.
"Aun cuando yo pase por el oscuro valle de la muerte, no temeré porque tú estás a mi lado. Tu vara y tu cayado me protegen y me confortan." (Salmo 23:4)
Even when I pass through death's dark valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
In the intimate form of "you", the Spanish tells me that in the very darkest of times, Jesus is intimately, dearly, close beside me, protecting me as a cherished family member.
There is no formal distance.
What is canceled this year? Our list of wrongs. Our idols. All that we worshiped before life was put on hold.
What is not canceled?
Hope.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me." John 14:6
"A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices, oh night divine, oh night when Christ was born."
I pray that God would cancel fear for you.
From the end of last year, at Christmas Eve service, He had me pouring through my Bible for the phrase "Do not be afraid". It was in all the gospels as the angels and even Jesus appeared to mankind.
In 2020, God is continually repeating Himself, "Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged."
Have courage, my friends. In 2020, fear is a liar, and fear is canceled.
Sincerely,
Tammy
