One of my strong, football playing sons took his teddy with him when he went off to college, and he wasn’t one bit embarrassed about it. Maggie was a lovey he didn’t want to live without just yet.

When he was little he’d learned a real way to feel safe. He’d seen a scary movie too young and came asking for prayers afterward. He must’ve felt comforted, because he asked for prayers every single night after that, even in high school, if he happened to be home.

Getting through our nights and days unafraid is what these passages are about.

Nahum

One hundred years after Jonah preached to Ninevah, they’re back to their old tricks, and then some. God won’t let Assyria continue to bully the entire world, and through Nahum, he says their time is up. His purpose isn’t just to inform the Assyrian’s that he’s coming after them; it’s to bolster his people who’ve been carted off by them [Israel] and oppressed [Judah].

It’s God they need to fear, not Assyria, so Nahum reminds them who God is. A study in contrasts, God is both fierce and good, powerful yet patient, just and merciful, “a hiding place in tough times,” and the one who yanks false hideouts right out from under us, Na 1:1-10 MSG.

Ninevah, by contrast, is an anthill, and its people are the ants who live there. While they may strut across the world stage for the moment, they won’t stay there. They’re as significant as specks on a pile of dirt, and “even though you’re on top of the world, with all the applause and all the votes, you’ll be mowed down…,” Na 1:11-12 MSG.

Sure, God has scourged Israel and Judah and used Assyria to do it, but that’s a thing of the past. He’ll set his people free from their “ropes of bondage,” and he says to celebrate it, and to let worship and re-committing themselves to God be what comes of it, because “this [enemy] is history. Close the books,” Na 1:13-15 MSG.

Assyria’s takeover by unnamed enemies is described in brief, terse verse, but God is the one behind it all; God’s the One in charge. He’s torching chariots and putting their war business out of work. He’s taking them out because of their atrocities to hostages, their whoring businesses, their buying and selling that’s been a front for ripping people off, Na 2-3:17 MSG.

The king and his leaders haven’t done their jobs, and their people will be lost and scattered after a flood comes, a flood maybe from natural disaster or from enemies damming up a nearby river and letting it loose, it’s not clear. But it’s just what God predicted, along with the prophecy that Assyria and its minions would be forgotten, Na 2:8, 3:18 (commentary).

Nahum reminds them that God controls the weather; the earth shakes in his presence; he makes everyone pay for their sins; troublemakers don’t get second chances. All of which is to say: God’s the big deal, not Assyria or any other power. But it’s not a quaking fear of God they need, its the recovering of their wonder of him–their surprise, their joy, their delight in him, “Fear of the Lord is fear with the scary element deleted, making room again for wonder.” Na 1:1-10; Peterson, The Message Devotional Bible, p 1054.

When Nahum prophesied, Assyria was at the top of its game. It was unthinkable that God’s people would be out from under its domination. But God says just watch me. Israel’s forgotten him and what he’s done for them, but he’s the one they should pay homage to.

Because God reigns, we don’t have to live in fear of other nations or even of the bad news of other nations. We don’t have to live in fear of other people, either. I’ve lived in fear of not pleasing people–parents, spouse, children, church–much of my life, because pleasing God alone wasn’t enough, I thought, let alone pleasing myself.

But God let me see through these idols I’d built. He let me see through them to him on the throne of the universe. He’s the one I’m to fear and no other. This has been reorienting for me, and it’s been both freeing and perplexing. I’ve had to face the truth about their expectations, but not write my “expectors” off. I’m called to love them–not abandon them in order to survive.

Learning to fear God has been life changing in the extreme, but it’s not been a quick fix. Slowly, he’s walking me through my ruins and rebuilding, teaching me to care about other’s ruins, too. This is God’s work, and it is very good.

Fearing God makes you brave.

Revelation 8

An angel offers up “prayers of all the holy people of God” mixed with incense before the throne. Smoke billows and rises. Then the angel takes fire from the altar where those prayers were just offered and boom, all heaven breaks loose on earth in devastation unlike anything ever seen, Re 8:2-4 MSG.

The catastrophic judgment that’s described here is precipitated by prayers? I’m intrigued that such devastation happens after the incensed prayers are offered. Prayer is mightier than I had any idea of.

It’s easy to think of prayer as what to do when you can’t really do anything for somebody. So you say, “I’ll pray for you!” and rather lamely, too. It can feel impotent, as if in a last ditch effort when you can’t think of anything else, you might throw up a prayer instead of giving real help.

But no. Revelation shows us prayer is powerful. The prayers of God’s people are heard and breathed in like a pleasing aroma. Maybe it’s because of the prayers of believers that God acts to bring judgment on earth, as punishment or fulfillment for whatever the requests are. Who knows how it works? What I know is that it works.

I prayed that God would do whatever it took to reconnect my fr’enemy and me, and he has. Just yesterday I had an answer to another prayer that ran chills up and down my spine. I’ve had answers to prayers for children and pets, for friends and their kids, for the weather, for our bats, for our church, for my arthritis, for my car tires. Answers come in all the time.

Knowing God acts as a result of your prayers is fortifying, heartening, encouraging. Prayer is not a last resort. It’s your first line of defense. It engages the God of the Universe to be there for somebody who needs them.

Praying makes you brave.

Psalm 136

The psalmist writes it 26 times, “God’s love never quits.”  I’m guessing it’s written between every line of the entire Bible, and the psalmist is just giving us a peek to see it that way here.  

Because “God’s love never quits,” we can have real hope in him. If his love were fickle or dependent on us, we’d be sunk, but it’s not. It’s dependent on him, and it’s rock solid because God is. And like God, it never ends.

The psalmist says God’s the only God there is, and he works miracles for his kids. He made the world and guides our journey through it, giving us just what we need when we need it, whether protection from enemies or food in our bellies. “Thank God, who did it all!” he says at the end, because “his love never quits!” Ps 136 MSG.

It’s love-that-never-quits that he wants from us, too, much more than whether or not we’re perfectly good or saving the world. This is the faithful love David had. He kept coming back to God again and again after every fumble of his, and he fumbled quite a bit. Even in his old age, he was still talking to God and trusting him, still believing and passing his faith along, Ps 71:18.

This is what made him a “man after God’s own heart,” not his exploits and his efforts as king of Israel, impressive as those were. The key to David was that he kept messing up and repenting, falling into sin but going back to take the plunge in the blood of the Lamb. We don’t have to hide in shame when we fall flat. We can repent and begin again.

God’s “love that never quits” makes you brave. .

Response

God, Thank you for taking down world powers and for taking down the idols I empower. Thank you for prayer, the walkie-talkie you’ve set up on the ground for us, and for listening in for my voice. Right now, since it’s raining, my heart is singing with the gutters “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Thank you for all the ways you make me brave because I believe it.

In Jesus’ name.

Proverbs 30:7-9

There are two things to ask God for: that he keep liars and lying far away, and that he gives you enough food to eat but not too much. Too little, you might steal. Too much, you might forget him.

Passages in Nahum, Revelation, Psalms and Proverbs are selected for today in The One Year Bible.