Ivan and I have been attending a Bible Study on the Awe of God. It is a study from the book, The Awe of God: The Astounding Way a Heatlhy Fear of God Transfomrs Your Life, author, John Bevere. We are in the last week of the study and have been reading the benefits of exercising the holy fear God. I just wanted to take a few minutes to share some of what I have been learning. This helps me process the words I have read and listened to and gives me a way to not keep those words for myself but to share just in case it is something you may need to hear yourself.
Throughout Scripture we are told to fear God, in both the Old and New Testaments. Yet in our society today, we see less and less of the teachings to fear God. We hear more about a loving God that wants only the best for us. We begin to think, if we don't have the best, that God must not care about us. We try to earn His love by doing things that please Him without really fearing Him but rather we do it to gain something out of it. When we still don't get what we want, we may question if God is really there, or we thin that if He really loved us He would do this for us. We can see how wrong of thinking this is in our lives as human beings. When we see someone forcing themselves or their ways upon someone who does not agree with the action. We hear, "If you really loved me, you would do this for me". God doesn't work that way. He sees our heart, He knows our motives or our motivations. Is our motivation based on our desire to please God, please man, or please ourselves? Psalm 112 reads:
The Righteous Will Never Be Moved
112 Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
7 He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn is exalted in honor.
10 The wicked man sees it and is angry;
he gnashes his teeth and melts away;
the desire of the wicked will perish!
(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20112&version=ESV)
It is out of the fear and the love for the Lord that should motivate us to do good acts for without the fear of the Lord, our actions are done for our own glory.
In your quest through life, ask yourself what your motivation is? Who do you fear more, God or man? Do you exalt God above all or do you try to place Him in a box or a bottle and let Him come out when you have a request? God is way to big for a box or bottle! Always strive to put Him first in your life. Ask yourself, am I doing this for God or am I doing this for myself? Am I showing God how much I love and fear Him or am I just asking Him to love me and my desires?
More later but that's it for now.
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila
