I've been meditating a
lot on the fear of the Lord, and it's been hitting me a lot that if only
I had more fear of God, I would be less consumed with fear of
everything else! If to everything God asked us to give up - money, time,
relationships, comfort, control, fill in the blank - we immediately
jumped up and said "YES!" oh, the things He could do through us if only
we had His perspective...
But we can have it!
But we can have it!
Jesus
praying in the garden of Gethsemane = an example of human suffering
with such reverent fear of the Father that it drove Him to the CROSS -
where He suffered physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
That Jesus willingly went to the cross in utter submission. Would I do
that for God? Would you? Yet if we truly feared God, we would indeed
fear what would happen if we didn't obey! Abraham almost
slaughtered his son simply because God commanded him to act in obedience
(Genesis 22) v. 12 - "'Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not
do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not
withheld from me your son, your only son."' (By the way, that is such a
cool foreshadowing of God sending His only Son to die for us! Did you
ever notice that?) God continues to proclaim a blessing on Abraham,
promising that through him and his descendants, nations would be
blessed! So the question is, who do you fear more?
Psalm
112 is an outline of a person who fears the Lord and what their life
looks like. It talks about blessing and prosperity through integrity and
generosity. v 7 - "He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is
steadfast, trusting in the Lord." I think of Job in the Bible. God
himself said that Job was a man who feared Him (Job 1:8, 2:3), yet he
got bad news after bad news... after bad news! So is that contradictory?
Nope! See, I don't think we fully understand blessing until we have perspective. If we view everything (and I mean everything)
we have as God's anyway, and reverent fear drives us to complete
obedience, nothing we have (or don't have) matters. It doesn't matter if
we live in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills or the slums in Ethiopia,
if we fear God, we know that we are truly blessed beyond anything we
will ever deserve. Yes, Job questioned God, but his perspective was that
God is still sovereign, and he trusted that there was a higher purpose.
If only we acted more out of fear for our Creator - think of what we could do!
