FEAR

FEAR / Feb. 4^th, 2014

Watch the news for less than 10mnts. and you can find at least 10 things you should fear; from cancer to car accidents, food poisoning to being held hostage at a mall, and from fires to floods to financial disasters.  Our world is FULL of fear.  Honestly, I can’t even watch the news, because I do have a weakness of FEAR of the things on this earth at times.  They creep into my heart, and I think, oh no, I hope that doesn’t happen to someone I love. I’m not sure anyone feels safe anywhere at any time anymore.  Fear of the things that can happen to us on this earth have divided us from the ONE whom we should fear.  

There is a vicious snake that has creatively used fear of many things to distract all of us from whom and what we should fear.  It’s a very clever tactic, I admit.  One we must always be aware of.  Stop and listen to yourself speaking, how many times a day do you say, I am scared of -------?  My plane crashing, the flu, my child’s school or playground, a creepy mole on my back, etc.  What are your fears?

I was reading in Deuteronomy this week and came across a few times when the phrase; “fear the Lord your God” was spoken.  One time in particular drew my attention, because it said, “O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to FEAR the LORD your God..”  Deuteronomy 10: 12  This caused me to pause and read the whole chapter again, to gain perspective of why is it that the Lord said MORE than 25 times in the Bible to FEAR Him?  I began to look up all the scriptures that speak of FEAR of the LORD.  Many of them are written as this one, like a command with a promise afterwards.  Fear the Lord and…your children will prosper, you will inherit the promise land, you will be blessed.  Other verses say the FEAR of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.  This leads me to the WORD of the day from the WORD.  I would like to challenge US to exchange OUR version of the word FEAR that is created from earthly experiences, with God’s version of the word FEAR.  So yes, let’s exchange FEAR for FEAR.  How can we do this?

The answer is found in the WORD, of course.  “ My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the FEAR of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:1-5.  Why would getting to know the LORD be the beginning of understanding FEAR?  Because when we FEAR the things of this earth, the things that could KILL our families and those we love, we have put all of our trust in ourselves, this is called PRIDE.  But, when we read God’s WORD, accept them, store them DEEP within our hearts and apply them to our lives, searching endlessly for God’s treasures, our focus simply switches from US to HIM.  And that my friend is a PERFECT EXCHANGE of our FEAR with FEAR OF THE LORD! 

I pray tonight you stop listening to that little snake in your ear and instead EXCHANGE your FEARS with a FEAR OF THE LORD, and start searching for that treasure as if its EVER LASTING LIFE because IT IS which is why….The FEAR of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.  Proverbs 19:23.  AMEN and AMEN.

HUGS!  SMJ