When you think of fear of the lord, what comes to your mind? The past couple of days I've noticed an unhealthy fear, one that is antithetical to that desired in scripture. When I start to think about the future and how I really want this to happen or that to work out, I get fearful and think "I shouldn't think about this, God will probably do something with my life that'll wreck me and I'll just be frustrated". I find I've got this view of God that portrays him as the giant anvil that hits the Wiley Coyote. I'm terrified when or how the anvil is gonna hit me. So my feeling is that I've got to bury these thoughts, plans, desires or God is gonna go all Tasmanian devil on me (I apologize for the loony toon references, for some reason I can't get em out of my head).
Do you feel this way? That sinking suspicion that God is gonna do something and its gonna be bad? I've been convicted that this is unbelief in who God says he is and it is not the fear of the lord desired in scripture. Granted, we should be afraid of God but that is not dominant element. We need to remember that as Christians we serve a God who promises to deny us NO GOOD THING. He proved that by giving up his son for us. I'm seeing that legitimate fear of the lord is the fear that sees God in all his holiness and majesty and us in our creatureliness and total sinfulness and then the fact that the very same God, gave his perfect son to suffer his just wrath so that you and me could be reconciled and made children of God. We should not be afraid of God in the sense that we are afraid of what he will do, this is fear couched in unbelief. In fact, we don't need to fear judgment because Christ experienced the full load. Let's remember that we do not come to a cruel divine ogre who crushes us and our desires cause we don't measure up. We come to a heavenly father who delights in his children. And when we feel the painful rod of his discipline, it's only meant to protect us from the deceitfulness of the idols that grab for our attention. If he denies us certain things, it's only because he has something better. Sinclair Ferguson describes legit fear of the Lord as:
"The indefinable mixture of reverence, fear, pleasure, joy and awe which fills our hearts when we realize who God is and what he has done"
If you are a Christian you can come to God with those desires, but please surrender them. I need to, I need to believe he is for me. We should not be afraid because we serve a God who takes pleasure in doing good to his children.
"I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul."(Jeremiah 32:41)
Cultivating proper fear of the Lord involves thinking hard about who he is and what he has done. This same God who spoke creation into being, who wiped out nations, and abhors sin, crushed the apple of his eye, in order to wipe you and me clean and bring us to him to enjoy forever, righteous in Christ. Deep reflection of the cross and it's implications should evoke the fear that glorifies him and fuels our striving for godliness. Today rest in the fact that God is for you, he wants you to enjoy him and trust he has your good at heart.
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