Wednesday, November 11, 2020

“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.” Proverbs 15:16

Fear is a tricky thing. It‘s meant to be a healthy deterrent to reckless or dangerous behavior that can cause great harm (hence my fear of roller coasters). More often, fear is a thing that consumes us, that keeps us from taking any risk or gets in the way of trust. 

Scripture tells us that appropriate fear, such as the “fear of the Lord,” is actually a benefit to us. When we have a proper sense of respect, awe, and wonder regarding who God is, we can trust that God’s desires for us are good. Moreover, it reminds us that God is God, and we are not.

I think most of the time when I get into trouble, it’s because I’m more concerned with what I think or with what others think than about what God thinks. 

I recently heard an interview with (now former) presidential candidate Kayne West, and he said it in a way that really resonated with me. He said, “…if you remove the fear of God, you create the possibility of fear of everything else.”

We live in a broken world so there are things to fear. But today let’s begin with the fear of the Lord, so those things that we shouldn’t fear can be put in their rightful place.