When you fear something, it is the first thing for which you look. The change is powerful, but often unnoticed, because we don’t see what we don’t see.
If you fear snakes and you are walking in the woods, you could almost walk into a tree because you are so snake-vigilant.
If you are a young boy who fears the rhyme, “Step on a crack and you’ll break your mama’s back,” then you scan every new room for tiles. A dozen people may be knocked down, but mama’s back is safe.
If you have a fear of rejection, then you look for and reinterpret every verbal exchange (and even the absence of exchanges) for possibility of not fitting in. Many compliments are deemed “only polite” in the name of avoiding rejection.
The point is, fear is more than an emotion. Fear changes how we think and what we see. Fear makes some things super-relevant and because of our limited cognitive capacity, forces other things (we’re never sure what) to relative irrelevance.
It is with this perspective that we can better understand how “the fear of the Lord is the beginning or wisdom (Job 28:28; Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7).” When we fear God we will look for Him in all situations and consider His will.
To help you personalize this, make a list of your most prevalent fears. From that list consider how you have organized your life to ease (please) those fears. Do you begin to see how innately fear brings practical change into our lives? We do not have to make plans, seek accountability, or find ways to remind ourselves when fear is involved.
The question becomes, “How do we grow in the fear of the Lord?” The answer begins with, “We must want to.” That may sound odd, but we entertain ourselves with fear all the time – movies, amusement park rides, novels, or the suspense of sporting events. Each of these are major industries of our culture that feed off fear (and its cousin emotions).
Isaiah 11:3 says, “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear.” Notice that the fear of the Lord is said to be a delight. Also, notice that this fear changed what was seen and heard.
The answer continues with, “We must listen to our rival fears.” These fears (by definition) have a strong tendency to push us into folly. The problem is often not that our fears are wrong or misguided, but that we view our fears as more real, powerful, and present than our God. It is not that our fears completely lie; they just neglect the most important Fact in the universe.
The answer continues with, “We must allow our fears to point us back to God.” God is often not nearly so rough on us in our fear as we are on ourselves. The prayer that God gives us to pray is, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you (Psalm 56:3).” While fear does reveal a diminished view of God, God is more concerned (even elated) with the return of His children than He is offended by their departure (Luke 15:11-32).
The answer concludes with, “We must express our renewed view of God in practical faith.” This is where we often fear not being creative enough to figure out what to do. But this is also where our introduction provides great relief. When fear is present, the corresponding life changes are natural.
Once you have taken the journey of the first three steps, then you can trust this final step will be clear (although clear should not be mistaken for easy). This assurance can be particularly strong when you take this journey with mature Christian friends that you involve in the process.
Remember, you serve a God who delights in making Himself known; not playing hard to get.
Posted 10 months, 1 week ago at 12:25 pm. Add a comment
“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” 2 Cor. 5:11
What is the fear of the Lord? That is a question that is larger than can be addressed in a blog post, but I would like to examine one characteristic of fear that may help us experience more of the fear of the Lord (a good thing).
Fear Feature: 
We tend to focus on and look for what we fear. If someone has a fear of snakes and they walk in the woods, they are looking fervently for snakes. If someone fears rejection, they will listen in every conversation for a negative comment, gesture, or omitted compliment (often hearing one whether it was there or not). If someone fears failure, then each moment is braced against it, asking for some skill or knowledge they do not have (often being paralyzed from doing things they are perfectly capable of doing).
Living in the fear of the Lord then, means to live with a constant awareness of God. What is He doing? What is His will for this situation? How can I express His character in this relationship? How could I please Him in this moment? In this regard, we might say that the opposite of the fear of the Lord is casualness/forgetfulness towards God.
In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul draws a connection between someone’s fear of the Lord and their level of persuasiveness. As we will see in just a moment, Paul was not trying to create the latest, greatest sales technique. Paul was merely putting a reality into words.
The fear of the Lord is the only fear that is not self-centered. All other fears are necessarily self-centered because their ultimate goal is self-preservation. The fear of the Lord begins with denying ourselves and dying to our desires (Luke 9:23-24).
This influences our ability to be persuasive in three ways:
- People are more apt to listen to someone who is not out for what they can gain in a situation. Paul had modeled this in his early preaching in Corinth (1 Cor 9:9-12). He would not allow the Corinthians to give him money for his ministry so that they would know of the sincerity of his message. One good question for measuring trust is, “How much does this person fear God?”
- We are more able to interpret a situation correctly when the lenses of self are not distorting our motives. We tend to see what we fear/trust. If we fear/trust money, we see a profit margin. If we fear/trust acceptance, we see rejection. If we fear/trust power, we see opportunities to get ahead. When we actively fear/trust God, we see things as they really are (rather than through the distortion of our fears). When we do not see things accurately people are confused and turned off by the sense that our words are “off.”
- Finally, when we fear the Lord we do not require a certain response from the other person as personal validation. Their acceptance or rejection of our message (i.e., the Gospel, a biblical way to resolve a particular conflict, a character quality we ask of our children, etc…) is not personal acceptance or rejection. We can then model a kind of social freedom that is sorely lacking in our insecure culture that hyper-personalizes differences.
Posted 1 year, 5 months ago at 12:26 pm. Add a comment
The 50th Year (25:10-13)
One of the questions we should all wrestle with is, “How can I own my things rather than my things owning me?” In a very material culture this is a constant battle of the heart. We want to “get ahead” or “be prepared.” Retirement is looming. Yet in spite of that we want to enjoy the moment, see our kids grow up, and rest in God.
The Year of Jubilee is one way God helped Israel balance these things. It was not just that twice in your lifetime you would “get a year off,” but that Jewish commerce and social customs were built around this calendar. For example, the price of a field was determined by the distance from the Year of Jubilee (25:15). Combined with the regular Sabbath, this made for a much more balanced life than the average modern American.
Reflection: How have you begun to be owned by your things? How does this show up in your work habits? What would you have to change in your budget and/or social lifestyle in order to rest in the way God prescribes? How does your attitude toward your things change the way (attitude, ethics, or amount of time) you relate to God and other people?
But Fear Your God
(BCH_Leviticus_25_handout for Printable PDF Handout)
Three times in Leviticus 25 the motivation given for avoiding sin is fearing God (v. 17, 36, 43). In each case the reader is being exhorted to display self-control and sacrifice. The internal question of the reader would be, “Why shouldn’t I use this situation to my advantage, if I planned or prepared better?” Each time God’s general response is, “Do not take advantage of your brother, but fear your God.”
Our struggle is that we often forget about God in the “practical” parts of life (i.e., land sales, giving a loan, work environment). God is not saying, “Shake in your boots because if you do these things wrong I will zap you.” God is simply saying, “Do not forget that your first duty in all things—no matter how practical or trivial—is to model my character?”
Use the following steps to help you grow in the fear of the Lord.
- Make a list of the major areas of responsibility in your life.
- Under each area of responsibility make a list of people you interact with and decisions that are in your jurisdiction.
- Evaluate how you naturally define success in each area of responsibility.
- Now go back and think about God’s objectives for each person and area of jurisdiction.
- Put this list in the place where you regularly have devotions so as you study Scripture and pray you can make notes about what “fearing God” looks like in each area of life.
Hopefully you can see that fearing God, when understood correctly, is more exciting than intimidating. It brings eternal significance to the moments we often view as trivial. As we see how to live in the fear of the Lord it can bring our time of daily Bible study and prayer to life.
A Bold Promise (25:20-22)
Think about it, if you skip a year’s worth of planting that requires three year’s worth of food and faith. The old cycle was crop-food-seed. Now the cycle would have to be crop-food (year 6)-food (year 7)-food (year 8)-seed (year 8)-crop again. That is a big promise for God to come through on.
More than this, the Year of Jubilee was to be a time of celebration – not fear. It would be incredibly difficult to celebrate God’s goodness in year seven knowing we had to wait for the harvest of year eight before anything new went in the pantry.
Reflection: When you read the promises of God do you also consider the faith that is necessary to experience the joy intended in God’s promises? Do you read that last question with a sense of guilt (“I knew I wasn’t doing it right”), fear (“what if I can’t do my part right”), or enthusiasm (“God allows me to participate and grow in the fulfillment of His promises”)?
Introduction to the “Living Our Faith” series.
TOOL: “Using Prayer Time to Cultivate Ministry”
BLOG POST: “Teachers Equipping Ministers Through Prayer Time“
Posted 1 year, 8 months ago at 12:41 pm. Add a comment
Have you noticed our culture’s infatuation with entertaining itself with fear? There are countless books, movies, thrill rides, bungee jumps, and for some people their regular driving habits. This post is not going to condemn those with an appetite for fear as violating Philippians 4:6’s command to be anxious for nothing. Rather, instead of seeking to reduce fear this post will seek to increase fear.
There is a general axiom in Christian circles that the more spiritually mature one becomes the more sinful one will realize they are. Or stated differently, the more you get to know God the more you realize how far your character is from His. When Isaiah saw God he responded, “Woe is 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 (Isa 6:6).”
I would advocate that those who seek a thrill, seek the biggest thrill of all – getting to know God for who He really is. This would beat tightrope walking the Grand Canyon without a net. It is living life in light of this fear that is the very beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). When you view all of life in light of the majesty of God, foolishness does not just seem dumb; it also seems tame (boring).
Consider one other passage in light of this reflection: Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” What an amazing contrast between the words “throne of grace” and “approach with confidence.”
At a throne of grace from which we hope (with certainty) to receive mercy, we have no right to be there. If we are wrong about our invitation as children of the King, we would be killed immediately for our audacity to enter such a regal (holy) place. It is this realization (fear) that makes the grace we receive all the sweeter and prevents it from becoming a matter of pride, entitlement, or boredom.
It is this eternal peaceful thrill that will stimulate, satisfy, and calm our hearts for all eternity. Therefore, let us seek the greatest of thrills. Let us rightly entertain ourselves with the most intense of fears, but not for the sake of self-indulgence or trivial story-telling but to honor the Lord Almighty and to more accurately share his glory with a world longing to be thrilled!
Posted 2 years ago at 3:43 am. Add a comment
“Blessed” Is the Man (v. 1)
Psalm 112 begins with the simple statement “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord.” Simple stated this means the man who has settled in his heart that God gets to define…
… the priorities of life,
… what has value, and
… right/wrong,
… what is worth my time,
… success/failure,
… important/unimportant,
… lasting/fleeting,
… will be the man who has a “peace that passes all understanding.” There are two questions we must ask ourselves in light of this reality.
- On which of these seven items do we believe we know better than God?
- When we believe this what are we fearing (i.e, trusting in, relying on, hoping for) more than God?
As you answer these two questions you will be ready to read the rest of Psalm 112 and allow it to have the purifying affect that God intended.
8 Marks of the Fear of the Lord
(Click Here for Printable PDF Handout)
Psalm 112 is a practical call to and celebration of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is held forth and both right and effective. In the course of the psalm eight marks or fruits of the fear of the Lord are presented.
1. Upright (v. 2): As we walk in the fear of the Lord we do not have to cower in shame or insecurity. A good spiritual, emotional posture becomes more natural.
2. Righteousness (v. 3): A fruit of enduring in the fear of the Lord is an enduring righteousness that is the very righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 5:21).
3. Gracious (v. 4): A mark of the fear of the Lord is graciousness because we know our accomplishments are completely rooted in Christ so we are able to be patient with others.
4. Compassion (v. 4): Another mark is compassion for those who have not yet surrendered their heart to the fear of the Lord and are stuck in their folly (Prov 1:7).
5. Generosity (v. 5): With the fear of the Lord the temporalness of greed makes less sense to us and frees us to be joyously generous.
6. Integrity (v. 5): As we are gripped by the fear of the Lord all gains not achieved with the character of God are seen for the loss they truly are.
7. Steadfastness (v. 7): Once our motivation is rooted in the fear of the Lord the despair, insecurity, and laziness that lures us to quit dissipates.
8. Benevolence (v. 9): Finally, the great freedom of the fear of the Lord is that we are all sinners saved by grace—unmerited favor—and are thereby freed to extend to others what they have not deserved in the name of Christ.
Longing that Come to Nothing (v. 10)
We are all motivated by the desires of our heart (James 4:1-3). The sad truth is that sin never pays on its promises. The great hope of this verse—which almost seems to end the psalm on a negative note—is that righteous longings are fulfilled. When sin comes up short we are left in fear (not the fear of the Lord) and we experience the reverse of the eight marks above. Go back to the evaluations you made in verse 1. Look at the areas where you tend not to walk in the fear of the Lord. How have you seen the opposite of the eight marks above manifest themselves in your life during those times?
Introduction to the “Living Our Faith” series.
TOOL: “Using Prayer Time to Cultivate Ministry”
BLOG: “Teachers Equipping Ministers Through Prayer Time“
Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 3:09 am. Add a comment
