Today I watched a short video on the Fear of the Lord. I really connected with what it said, in part because of what the Lord has been talking to me lately about Jesus Christ being made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. (1 Cor 1:30) The order these are written in is important, but what comes before all of that? The fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of WISDOM… which leads to righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
In trying to downplay the fear of the Lord, we have lessened the awesomeness of who God really is. But the key is that we don’t have to stay in fear in His presence! He says, “Fear not!” And the phrase from the video that stands out to me the most is this… “Now that I’ve seen Him, I know there is nothing else to fear.” Wow!
Proverbs 19:23 says that the fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will be satisfied. I came to know this last year. I saw myself as I was and I saw Him as Who He was... and like Isaiah, I was undone. But in that place of getting real with and about myself, I really discovered His love, His mercy and His grace. I discovered that I could trust Him to do and be all that I was helpless to do and be by myself. And the freedom I found in that place of encountering that magnificent power of Love instilled a boldness in me as well as a gratitude. Yes- perfect Love really does cast out all fear… Even the fear of the Lord, because once you have truly encountered the fear of the Lord and then encountered His Love in response, wisdom begins… You know to stay close… you don’t want to stray from His Word or His instruction or even from His correction (He disciplines and corrects those He LOVES!).
But what else is the result? RIGHTEOUSNESS!! The ability to stand before God without fear! You are forgiven and have His very nature on the inside of you! And because you love Him (because He first loved you), you’ll obey Him because you’ll be sensitive to His voice… you’ll hear and you’ll follow… and in humility and obedience IS your sanctification… you walk worthy of the calling and are set apart for sacred use. And as you lay down your life for Him, His life is lived through you and the reality of your redemption is made manifest… redeemed from sickness… redeemed from poverty, and ultimately, redeemed from an eternal death of separation from God.
That’s a place of rejoicing, but at the same time, it also the sobering part, because to those who DON’T fear the Lord, the ultimate end is death and hell. What a sobering reality. Tonight I was looking at some Facebook profiles of people I went to school with growing up. You can only get to know so much about a person from Facebook profiles and pictures, but so many, I could tell, are leading lives outside of Christ. Suddenly it dawned on me for some of them… “These people are going to Hell.” HELL. The gravity of that hit me. What is my responsibility? My part? It brings me back to that place of, “If I really believe what I believe… that Jesus is the only way and apart from Him there is eternal separation from God in Hell… then I should be compelled to tell people. That should be a driving force in my life.” And yet at its core, it is not fear but love that should compel me. Love compelled me to come to Him. Now His Love is meant to compel me to GO. It is good that He is stirring these things in me. It is an answer to prayer and connected to the call.
Tonight as I prayed for the Body of Christ, I prayed that we would have a heart for where we are… for the people where we are… impacting lives in our own nations, cities, neighborhoods, and then from there that we would capture a heart for the world. It’s His design, and He’s doing it. Will you go?
In trying to downplay the fear of the Lord, we have lessened the awesomeness of who God really is. But the key is that we don’t have to stay in fear in His presence! He says, “Fear not!” And the phrase from the video that stands out to me the most is this… “Now that I’ve seen Him, I know there is nothing else to fear.” Wow!
Proverbs 19:23 says that the fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will be satisfied. I came to know this last year. I saw myself as I was and I saw Him as Who He was... and like Isaiah, I was undone. But in that place of getting real with and about myself, I really discovered His love, His mercy and His grace. I discovered that I could trust Him to do and be all that I was helpless to do and be by myself. And the freedom I found in that place of encountering that magnificent power of Love instilled a boldness in me as well as a gratitude. Yes- perfect Love really does cast out all fear… Even the fear of the Lord, because once you have truly encountered the fear of the Lord and then encountered His Love in response, wisdom begins… You know to stay close… you don’t want to stray from His Word or His instruction or even from His correction (He disciplines and corrects those He LOVES!).
But what else is the result? RIGHTEOUSNESS!! The ability to stand before God without fear! You are forgiven and have His very nature on the inside of you! And because you love Him (because He first loved you), you’ll obey Him because you’ll be sensitive to His voice… you’ll hear and you’ll follow… and in humility and obedience IS your sanctification… you walk worthy of the calling and are set apart for sacred use. And as you lay down your life for Him, His life is lived through you and the reality of your redemption is made manifest… redeemed from sickness… redeemed from poverty, and ultimately, redeemed from an eternal death of separation from God.
That’s a place of rejoicing, but at the same time, it also the sobering part, because to those who DON’T fear the Lord, the ultimate end is death and hell. What a sobering reality. Tonight I was looking at some Facebook profiles of people I went to school with growing up. You can only get to know so much about a person from Facebook profiles and pictures, but so many, I could tell, are leading lives outside of Christ. Suddenly it dawned on me for some of them… “These people are going to Hell.” HELL. The gravity of that hit me. What is my responsibility? My part? It brings me back to that place of, “If I really believe what I believe… that Jesus is the only way and apart from Him there is eternal separation from God in Hell… then I should be compelled to tell people. That should be a driving force in my life.” And yet at its core, it is not fear but love that should compel me. Love compelled me to come to Him. Now His Love is meant to compel me to GO. It is good that He is stirring these things in me. It is an answer to prayer and connected to the call.
Tonight as I prayed for the Body of Christ, I prayed that we would have a heart for where we are… for the people where we are… impacting lives in our own nations, cities, neighborhoods, and then from there that we would capture a heart for the world. It’s His design, and He’s doing it. Will you go?
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