Fear: Good vs Bad, Right vs Wrong

I do believe this is the shortest post I've written about our study on An Untroubled Heart. I'm not quit sure why I have the least to say about this topic. Well, I guess technically, the shortest post was for chapter five as I mentioned here why I didn't write the first word on it. So, chapter five is the winner. Yay! You better drink fast because it won't take you a whole cup of coffee as you read this one.

Healthy fear can motivate us to respecting, obeying and doing right. "To have godly fear means to revere and hold God in awe, not offending Him with sin. Reverential fear is a noble and healthy fear of God's greatness and holiness. It's a type of fear that respects the Lord and His ways much like the fear that alerts us to respect danger." Offending Him...that word strikes me differently today. Sinning is something we do wrong. Something that we should not do. But to think of sinning as an offense to God. Wow. To know that something I do would offend God. It puts sin in a new perspective. To know it's not just something we shouldn't do and something that is wrong, but rather even deeper, it is something that offends the Almighty One. Nope. I sure don't want to offend the Father. I'm not sure why I'm seeing this word in a new light...sin in a new light....a new perspective of the gravity of sin.

Healthy fear works for us and leads to freedom. Unhealthy fear works against us and leads to bondage and confinement. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me. Genesis 22:12 Abraham...the father of faith...the father of trust...the father of obedience. What an awesome example. As mentioned previously here, he is one of my faves. I'd put him in my fave fives.

God didn't want to take Isaac. He wanted to give Abraham the freedom of a fully surrendered heart and life. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. Psalm 145:19 Just as Abraham respected and revered God the Father, so did Isaac revere his father, Abraham. It's so apparent that not only was Abraham an obedient child of God but he also instilled that into his own child. There's no better desire than to exemplify the same godly fear that Abraham and Isaac showed.

When we fear God, we respect God.

When we fear God, we honor God.

When we fear God, we obey God.

"We show honor to God by displaying reverential esteem for others." I admit I've too many a time acted the exact opposite. Unfortunately I did not realize, as I was disrespecting my beloved, greater than that, I was hugely disrespecting my God. A much bigger offense!!

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding. Psalm 111:10 I now see during that time I had lost my reverential fear of God. I had blinded myself to His love. I couldn't see how the sin of my tongue and actions was an affront against God.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Revelations 3:19

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. Proverbs 3:7 "When we depart from evil, He is always willing to receive us no matter how far we have roamed."

Thank God for that!!

Fearing and Revering God,

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