Fear?

A friend of mine was telling me about the top fears people have. On the list of course were spiders, snakes, closed spaces, failure, flying and rejection. I am sure you can think of more. I browsed the net a bit and found several other lists. None of them had "Fear of God" or "Fear of going to Hell." One did have fear of death.

So in general we must not be too afraid of Hell or God. Hard to swallow. Here is some good news from Exodus, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you......to keep you from sinning" That is good news and helpful. The fear of God will keep me from sinning. I just need to have it more often. I would like to sin less, so if that takes the fear of God, I am delighted to "get it."

Question: How? This quote, happens to come right after the ten commandments. They are not the "be all and end all" of the law; there is much more to it and there is the great commandment which overarches, BUT, they are very helpful to "test" us...if we take the test....and when we flunk (which we will)...it should drive us to a new fear of the Lord.

Fear. Reverence, Respect. Awe. We can stand in awe of Him because He does not fear and He came to conquer our sin and death. So, today I am saying, Lord cause me to fear your holy name. To respect and honor you to the end that I do not sin against you. I want to be holy as you are because you are. No fear in that. I encourage you to take a look at teh commandments and teh One who kept them perfectly with perfect love, because that is what casts out fear. Blessings