Saturday, May 26, 2012
Put Your Fear In God
A fistfight broke out in church during choir rehearsal. I can’t remember what caused the argument that led to the nasty brawl. Two girls in the youth choir just went at it like a couple of mad alley cats. I was shocked that anyone would be bold enough to fight in church!
My youthful mind saw church as a holy, sacred place. It’s where the sovereign God lived; where we went to confess our sins, not commit them.
The fisticuff grieved my spirit and left me in tears. If I took such offense, I wondered how it must have hurt God. What had possessed His daughters to have such utter disregard for Him that they felt ok fighting in His sanctuary? Did they not fear the Lord?
That was more than 30 years ago. Since then, it seems man’s fear of God has deteriorated even more. Perhaps it’s because we don’t know what it really means to fear the Lord. Or perhaps we really don’t know God. For to fear God is to Know God.
Proverbs 1:7 tells us: “The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge.”
Christianity today defines godly fear as holy reverence and respect. But that seems inadequate. The Supreme, Majestic Lord who governs the universe deserves much more. You can give holy reverence to a minister or someone who wears a priestly color. You can respect, even venerate the Queen of England. But our noblest and best attempt to define reverence relative to the Almighty God falls woefully short. That fear entails true worship, adoration, honor and obedience. Godly fear is clearly captured in the biblical account of Joseph.
During his captivity in ancient Egypt, Joseph had to fight off his master’s lustful wife. Several times she tried to seduce the Hebrew house servant. But Joseph vigorously rejected her advances and fled. He knew to refuse her would cost him his job and likely send him to prison. But Joseph’s love and reverence for the Almighty God was stronger than any temptation. To injure God and violate His sovereign law was unthinkable.
In Genesis 39:9 Joseph said: “How could I do such evil and sin against God?”
Joseph put his fear in God. So, he was not afraid of what man or woman could do to him. He stood firm on his moral convictions because he knew God. And to know God is to esteem Him highly. It’s to respect Him as the Creator who has no equal, and rules with unparalleled power and glory.
The prophet Isaiah got weak-kneed and fell limp in God’s presence. His brief vision of The Almighty made him realize just how unclean humans are. He said, “I saw the Lord, high, exalted and seated on a thrown.”
All Isaiah could do was cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy.” He later hollered: “Woe to me! “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5
In this dispensation of grace in which we live, Christians are privileged to have God living in us. But don’t let “familiarity breed contempt.” We run the risk of making the Sovereign, Mighty God “common” in our eyes. That suggests a lack of fear, and a lack of knowledge of who God really is. Those who know God won’t be found handling Him casually. Neither will they handle His commandments with callous disregard.
When you put your fear in God, you put your faith in Him too.
In doing so, you won’t have to be afraid of man. Neither will you feel compelled to fight your own battle, in or out of church.
Scripture Of The Day: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” - Proverbs 1:7 (NKJV)
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