Fear the Lord - by Keith Henry
“But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.” (Psalm 33: 18,19 NIV)
"Fear: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc…whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid." (Dictionary.com)
Take a second and make a mental list of all your fears; we fear things like war, terrorism, gun-toting, disturbed people, death, germs, taxes, ghosts, heights (my favorite), flying, driving, etc. How many of you put God on the list of things you fear? We have been taught that God is loving and compassionate. Of this there is no doubt, however, we have lost something very crucial to our Christianity: the fear of the Lord.
In Proverbs 1:7, Solomon says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”
Knowledge opens our eyes to the truth; it brings us out of the darkness and into the light. It is “the beginning of knowledge” where we first realize we are sinners and “the fear of the Lord” consumes and transforms the repentant heart. Then, Christians are told about God’s great love and soon become comfortable with this fear; we tuck it away and stop seeking knowledge about God. We become content with the morsels we are fed from the pulpit to satisfy our knowledge of God while our hearts starve for truth. The late missionary Melville B Cox wrote, “I want to know all that man can know of God and live.”
“The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him,” and true fear comes from knowledge-know the Lord.
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