Fear

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!

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!