Fear of the Lord

Week 4 was Fear of the Lord. Let's start by looking at a passage from the Bible, Luke 12:4-7:


⁴"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. ⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. ⁷Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.


Okay, so in this verse Jesus says a couple things. First, don't fear things of this world, fear God. Man holds the ability to kill our bodies, but God decides where we spend eternity... so really, what is worse? However... Jesus goes on to say basically that we shouldn't worry about this because God loves us SO much. It is crazy that the only thing we should fear, God, is the one thing that has such an incomprehensible love for YOU and ME. The word fear in this verse has two meanings when you look at the original translation. It means to have a reverence/respect/love for God and a fear of knowing what God is capable of. Think of it this way: the ocean is a beautiful thing. We can swim in the ocean, we can be refreshed, we can surf, we can have heaps of fun but in all of this, we must realize that the ocean is capable of harming us. We are free to enjoy the awesomeness of the ocean so long as we understand how to avoid its dangers. Fear of the Lord is the same thing. We are free to enjoy an intimate relationship with God. This IS the Fear of the Lord. Another interesting point that the speaker made was that God will NOT pretend. God doesn't do secret sin. He will not pretend that there are areas of our lives that are okay when they are clearly not. In sin, we only have two options. We can sacrifice closeness with Jesus and ignore the sin or we can deal with the sin. In dealing with the sin, there is power in acknowledging that sin with the people around us. God just wants us to trust him and understand that he can help us deal with the sin. One of the things that really hit home for me is that Matt said our job in the DTS is to "listen and obey". We are not called do anything more then to simply listen to what God wants us to do and obey that. I am definitely learning and growing in this way.


Wednesday, we learned a lot about the importance of boundaries. Boundaries are part of Fear of the Lord, and they are ways that we can keep our relationship with God strong. Another big thing that Matt hit home was that Fear of the Lord is not about perfection. I identified this in Father Heart of God week, but it applies here too. I think God really is trying to hit this point home in my life. So often, I am like compelled to try and be perfect and I feel awful when I mess up, but God doesn't NEED us to be perfect, he wants us to just put trust in him. Perfection isn't required, but humility is. Humility isn't feeling less about myself. Humility is understanding our identity in Christ. We must be so sure of our identity that Satan cannot touch it. We cannot compromise. We talked about the different signs of the Fear of the Lord:

1)      Freedom from fear and control. Fear controls a person and desire for control takes precedent in many people’s lives. We must break the shackles of fear.

2)      An attitude of respect and submission towards leaders. Matt shared with us a story of not listening to Fred and Luke’s judgment about a situation with a girl. He didn’t have an attitude of respect and ultimately got into a situation where we seriously crushed the girl’s heart.

3)      Control of the tongue. Psalm 34:11-13

4)      Healthy relationships. Relationships aren’t about perfection. We can process difficulties with people.

5)      Freedom for the fear of man.

6)      Our ability to forgive without being bitter.

7)      Obedience to God.

8)      Authority. The more we give authority to God, the more authority we get. For example, look at the centurion who asked Jesus to heal someone. He understood the levels of authority and knew Jesus had the authority to heal even if he wasn’t right beside the person.

9)      Integrity when nobody is looking. Integrity is the quality of being honest, having strong morals; moral uprightness.

10)   Friendship with God. Fear of the Lord draws us into that “secret” place. Just remember, God loves to tell us about ourselves.

11)   Favour of God.

12)   Confession of secret sin.

The final thing I will leave you with is a challenge. One of the most powerful questions we can ask God is, "Lord, what Can I do for you today to bless you?"