For the past two years I have pondered the notion of
fearing the Lord. I have continued in my faith questioning myself, asking if I
fully fear the Lord. My answer would be “No” every single time. 'Til one day it
clicked.
It started
with recognizing that my fear of God must be shaped by my love of God.
What is fearing the
Lord?
“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil…” Proverbs 8:13
Fearing the Lord is hating what God hates out of your love
for Him. It is recognizing that God is better than any sin on this earth and
out of reverence, respect and at the core of it all, love, we want God more than
we want our autonomy.
The more that I understand the fear of the Lord the more my daily life is transformed. The sins I would usually commit that I thought were little (such
as the white lies to save face) were suddenly seen as huge in my life. I
started feeling conviction in areas that I had not before. The Lord was
sanctifying me by showing me how holy He is compared to my flesh and that every sin that I once thought was small was huge compared to His holiness.
And in the midst of all of my sin (even my little white lies) it showed that I did not fear the Lord,
but instead feared man. At the core of my lying I recognized that I wanted myself to look good to people and became fearful that if I told someone that I had slept in til noon or that I hadn’t read
the bible that day that I would look bad, so instead I would lie. In Proverbs
12:22 it says that “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” This includes
even the little white lies.
The more I meditated on the holiness of God the more my once little sins grew into gigantic sins that I could not continue doing out of my love and fear for the Lord.
When you fear...
“The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it
rests satisfied…” Proverbs 19:23
Fearing the Lord has been a process, one that I continue to
meditate on and pray about. It has brought about more reverence and love in my
relationship with the Lord and I am being renewed and satisfied daily. Fearing God has allowed me to set aside any pride, fear of man, or desire of autonomy in my life and rest in the goodness of His holiness and love despite my sin.
I am aware that I am not even beginning to touch the depths of what fearing the Lord entails, but I am excited to continue to dig deep in The Word and continue to gain knowledge of His holiness and how it continually leads to fearing a holy and righteous God.
I am aware that I am not even beginning to touch the depths of what fearing the Lord entails, but I am excited to continue to dig deep in The Word and continue to gain knowledge of His holiness and how it continually leads to fearing a holy and righteous God.
Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
So the last one I commented on got me interested so I started reading more....This one is really insightful, and honest. Its cool that you are able to listen to your convictions and search the bible to try and make sense of them. Although there are many great points you make in this post, I think the best one is this: "Fearing the Lord is hating what God hates out of your love for Him. It is recognizing that God is better than any sin on this earth and out of reverence, respect and at the core of it all, love, we want God more than we want our autonomy." I also like how you said that Fearing the Lord is a process instead of an overnight sort of thing. And its sweet that as you begin to fear the Lord more your finding yourself increasingly more satisfied in Him as a result. I am encouraged by your ability to write and your willingness to be transparent. Keep "digging deep," as you put it, to know The Word and be transformed by it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon! I really appreciate you taking the time to read my posts and being able to be encouraged by them as well! God is continually moving and molding His people to be more like Him, ahh the beauty of sanctification. So good!
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