It's often been said that fear is a great motivator. There is evidence for this across our lives. We fear losing our homes, so we work all week. We fear being judged by our neighbors, so we keep up appearances. We fear for the safety of our children, so we invest in home protection. I could go on and on, but this article is about the thing we don't fear enough: God.
Over and over, the Bible is clear, God is to be feared. It is especially prevalent in Proverbs, as stated in Proverbs 1:7 NIV
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."
and later on in Proverbs 16:6 NIV
"Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided."
In today's world, we often talk about God and Jesus in the uplifting sense. The protector, the savior, and the creator of love. We avoid talking about fearing the Lord because fearing the Lord is an uncomfortable topic.
A discussion came up in our small group this week about how we can be witness for God in our daily lives. One person brought up a friend's suggestion that we ask each waiter or waitress we interact with how we could pray for them. We all laughed and talked about how uncomfortable that would be.
And then it hit me.
We were all expressing how we were more afraid of being uncomfortable than we were of the wrath of being disobedient to God. In all of our small group meetings, we've talked about the importance of obedience to God, loving God, and making God the priority in our lives, marriages, parenting, etc. but these following ideas cannot coexist: You cannot have God be the most important thing in your life and fear him as the power that can create and destroy the universe, while also being unwilling to speak his word to strangers or speak his word in general on a daily basis.
If you fear the Lord, you will do what he asks. Just like you fear the consequences of doing or not doing so many other things that drive your behavior, a person who truly loves and fears of God will act accordingly. Think about the magnitude of God, and adjust your fear accordingly. The omnipotent force of the universe commands you through his word, so you better get to stepping into your discomfort.
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