FEAR (AND RESPECT) THE LORD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is what the Lord says to me with His strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:

“Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread. He will be a holy place.

Isaiah 8:11-14a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Who or what do you fear in life?

I think we all have our share of phobias when it comes right down to it. They come in all kinds of forms.

Maybe you are arachnaphobic which means you are afraid of spiders. Maybe you are acrophobic or afraid of heights. Maybe you are afraid of being trapped in an enclosed space which would make you claustrophobic. If you can’t bear the thought of having a cavity filled you might be dentophobic or afraid of dentists. A fear of strangers would make you xenophobic. I could go on but you get the point. There is an endless list of things we are fearful of.

But why? Why do we allow ourselves to be afraid of the things of this world?

Maybe because we aren’t focused on the One who we should really be afraid of, the One who would calm all our fears if we just placed our focus on Him.

Huh? At this point you are saying, Mark, you have officially lost it. That statement made no sense at all because aren’t we focusing on getting rid of our fears? Why would we ever turn in our fears in exchange for one solitary fear?

Well, first of all, I haven’t lost it and, second, we are to exchange worldly fears for the fear of God because the Bible tells us to. That’s good enough for me. Look at these verses again:

 This is what the Lord says to me with His strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:

“Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread. He will be a holy place.”

Did you catch the words of the Lord, the words He spoke to Isaiah with a strong hand on him?

The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread.

The message is simple: Fear the Lord and Him alone. For He and He alone is the One who holds your life in His hands. He is almighty which means nothing is mightier than Him. No spider or height we might be on. No small enclosure or dentist or stranger. Nothing we could possibly fear is mightier than the King of kings and Lord of lords, the One who holds power over all things in heaven and on earth.

Our Lord God Almighty is to be feared and this means more than to just be afraid of the power He could leverage against any sinner like you and me through judgment. It also means we are to respect and revere Him for as our scriptures remind us, He is holy and we are only holy because He is first holy.

Fear and respect the Lord. When we do, then we never will try and do anything that would lead to His disfavor and its associated discipline. Rather, we will always strive to treat Him with the highest esteem through living in accordance with His will and way, a lifestyle that will always lead us to His righteousness and subsequently, His favor, a favor that will bring His protection upon us against anything that would seek to bring us harm.

When that happens, when the Lord is pleased with our lives and places His covering over us, why would we ever fear again?

For truly, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31b)

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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