~
The Israelites Were Commanded to Fear God, 13 ~
God
does not want His children living in fear.
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life
and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue”
(2 Peter 1:2-3). However,
God does want His children to have a proper respect and reverence for Him. We are told in many places in Scripture to “fear
God.”
This Week’s Passage ~ “Every commandment which I command you today
you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and
possess the land of which the Lord swore
to your fathers. And you shall remember
that the Lord your God led you all
the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to
know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and
fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He
might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor
did your foot swell these forty years. You
should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.
“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and
to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a
good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out
of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and
pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread
without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron
and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He
has given you” (Deuteronomy 8:1-10).
Fearing God Results in Salvation
~ “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews
10:31). “A wise
person fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident”
(Proverbs 14:16).
This does not mean the Christian is to live a fearful life—but a life
which reverences God and seeks to do His will.
Fearing God Results in
Fearlessness ~ “The Lord
is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord
is the strength of my life; of whom shall
I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1). The answer is: only God. With the gift of salvation comes responsibility.
Fearing God Results in Witnessing ~ “Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will
declare what He has done for my soul” (Psalm 66:16).
~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW
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