It's not 'Great News of Good Joy'
Don’t be afraid! This is a frequent statement either God or an angel makes when humans get overwhelmed. Sometimes when I wake up in the mornings and start to pray, I gently hear the Lord say, “Don’t be afraid. . .” This causes a weird emotion in me - like there is more fear of what is going to happen now that He has said that.
Fear is a jerk and has even skewed this interaction with God I speak of. When God says “Don’t be afraid” in scripture, we still let fear rule the day and anticipate that there is something more to be afraid of. It’s like when my son comes in and his first statement is “Now Dad, don’t get mad at me but . . .”. My first response is “Well I wasn’t mad until you prefaced your conversation with that.” The unknown brings us to this pivotal point with the Lord. God, or an angel representing Him, shows up in supernatural style and because of that, He has to preface His conversation with a statement of “I know you are afraid but I have come to tell you something important, so don’t be afraid”.
Does this work? If God were to manifest something in front of me right now in this Dunkin’ Donuts that freaks me out, He knows me well enough to start out by saying “Don’t be afraid.” But He also knows me well enough to follow up that statement with one of explanation or purpose.
This brings me to my point. God doesn’t have to continue past the “do not be afraid” statement, but He does. With all the power He has and everything that I have done, I feel like He should show up and say “BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!”. But that is not the character of the King of Kings. That isn’t who our Heavenly Father is!
Since it happens to be Christmas time, let's look into the most famous “Don’t be afraid” moments in order to see the heartbeat of The Father.
8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!
The words here that stick out to me are...Suddenly...Surrounded...Terrified. So, in an instant the glory that belongs to God was sent down to earth to get their attention? No, God’s glory wasn’t there to get their attention, because that would be a cheap use of glory. God doesn’t use His glory as a resume of His power. God’s glory can’t be separated from Him so, while it does prove His power, that wasn’t the point of what was happening that night. To be suddenly surrounded by God’s glory would make anyone terrified. But if God wanted to go around scaring shepherds at night . . . well. . . this is exactly what He would want to do. Ha! But that wasn’t the point. To really scare them would be to display this glory and not speak at all. But to choose to speak and those first words to be a reassurance to the shepherds not to fall into fear? This isn’t an all-powerful being simply flexing His cosmic powers. Hear and see the heart of the Father.
Sure - God’s glory comes, but it’s not the point. What the angel is bringing is the point and it has a dual purpose.
Good news
and
Great Joy.
I know I have written about this before but I think it is vital to bring up again. We have taken this gift that the angel declared on that Holy Night and twisted it into “Great News of Good Joy”. The truth is that the “good news” is about the Savior and the “great joy” is found in the relationship with Him.
Salvation is incredible and not to be minimized, but salvation is just the key that unlocks the door to a relationship with Jesus that is filled with GREAT JOY!
I think that, in many of our lives, we are known only by our salvation versus being known as a person of great joy. In that simple little statement that Linus still reads on public tv this time of year, is an incredible life principle. In this life principle I find guidelines on how I am to interact with God and other people.
It’s this simple. I am to be a person who shares the good news I carry but, more than that, impacts the world with the Greater joy that I have!