I was reading in Psalm 31 and came across this verse which I decided to reflect on more than usual:
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you.
We don’t like fear. Fear rules our perspectives, and too often dominates our thoughts, our planning, and our abilities to live life with joy. But sadly, many try to defeat fear through an emphasis on the will. People work to conjure up a sense of boldness within themselves, “I will not be afraid,� they half-heartedly remind their quaking hearts. Is this the answer to fear, to try to convince the fearful self that one should not be afraid? That seems a bit shallow, if you ask me. How can the fearful person all of the sudden not be afraid? And if you believe that Paul is right when he said in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, then it seems that fear is deeply embedded in the sinner’s heart and will not go away so easy. Or again, Paul also writes in Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’� Fear is a result of the enslavement of sin.
The answer to fear is not to ‘fear less’ but to ‘fear more.’ That’s right. The difference is that the object of our fear must be correct. We fear in this world because we the fear triggered by the power of sin and death. Thus, when we fear life and all of its troublesome implications, we become paralyzed by sin. But in fearing God, the essence and author of all that is good, perfect, and loving, who has absolutely no sin in Him whatsoever, whose sight is absolutely wondrous and beautiful, we are freed from the debilitating and false fear that is grounded on sin. Thus when David says this in Psalm 31, that those who fear God experience the abundance of God’s goodness, that makes sense. When we respect God, admire God, adore God, worship God, it is in every way an indication that we revere and fear Him. And God’s promise is that when we respect Him in this way, and live our lives in light of this fear, He has no desire to make people merely tremble with deathly fear of Him. We will do that any way, whether we want to or not according to Paul’s words in Philippians 2:9-11. No, we are to fear Him to experience delighting in Him. If you want to be free of fear, fear God and you will never be paralyzed by fear again. This is every reason why the breadth of the NT continues to emphasize this recurring phrase, “Do not be afraid.� When the God of the universe is on your side, how can you be afraid?
I heard an astute Bible teacher explain the fear of the Lord. Fear meant, quite simply, fear. Not honor. Or respect. Or reverence. Fear = fear. This concept is essentially unknown by evanjellyfish. At best fear and wrath and punishment are relegated to the OT and the God in its pages. You hardly hear anyone referred to as “God-fearing” nowadays.
Posted by TimK | April 21, 2006, 5:37 pmI wonder, I wonder. I need to really chew on that for a bit. We are limited in our scope of understanding fear, I would say, in the way in which God produces fear because our sin taints that view. Much in the same way we cannot truly be angry with the way in whcih God is angered since again it seems impossible to anger perfectly righteously since sin taints our anger as well. Hence the terrible consquences of total depravity, I would add is that it is total.
Posted by admin | April 21, 2006, 11:12 pm