Fear God, 57

~ Fear of God Causes Consideration of Our Daily Actions ~

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  ~  “And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.  After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, ‘Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.’  So I called a great assembly against them.  And I said to them, ‘According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations.  Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren?  Or should they be sold to us?’  Then they were silenced and found nothing to say.  Then I said, ‘What you are doing is not good.  Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?  I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain.  Please, let us stop this usury!  Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them’” (Nehemiah 5:6-11). 

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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