LEARNINGS TO SHARE…

I believe something that is missing in the church today is a healthy fear of the Lord!!  It seems many can just co-habitate with sin and it not even bother them. (at least not enough to change)  This is a troubling thing but really shouldnt surprise any of us.  Jesus and many other writers wrote in the Bible about how the last days would be characterized by such heart attitudes.

this past sunday I preached about how necessary “Godly sorrow” was for true repentance.  However, if we take it back one step further then the key to experiencing Godly sorrow is found in our relationship with Jesus which is directly related/connected to our “fear of the Lord”

Defining Terms –Anxious Dread vs. Reverential Awe

when I was a kid I often heard my mom say, “you just wait until your father gets home” (it was b/c I was a little angel you know!! :), anyway, the rest of the day was a wash needless to say.  All I could do was “dread” the time my dad was to arrive!  That is a description of Anxious Dread and that is not the fear of the Lord!  Even though we ought to respect the mighty power of God and His Sovereign choice to exercise that power, we should never be “afraid” of our heavenly Father- i don’t think He desires that kind of connection with us.  Reverential Awe on the other hand is what we would feel when we are in love with Him to the point that we wouldn’t want to sin against Him or go contrary to His will.

How do we grow a Healthy Fear of the Lord?

A healthy Fear of the Lord is key to our love relationship with Him.  Here is how it works…the only way I can grow a healthy fear of the Lord is to know Him more, the more I know Him, the more I grow in my fear of Him (reverential awe), which is also based in my love for Him…so, the more I know Him, the more I love Him, the more I love Him, the more my “reverential awe” (fear) grows, and results in more obedience and holiness.  the best way to grow in “fear of the Lord” is to study God!!  Get to know Him!! Intimately!

Study for yourself!

Here is a bible study mostly through Proverbs on the topic…(go from one passage to the next noting the connections between the fear of the Lord  with “understanding”, and “knowing”, and write down all the Scripture has to say on the fear of the Lord and its results: enjoy!

Prov. 1:7

Prov. 9:10

Prov. 15:33

Prov. 2:1-5

Ps. 111:10

Deut. 6:2

Deut. 10:12-13

Eccl. 12:13

Prov. 30:3

Job 28:12-20

Prov. 3:7, 6:6

This entry was posted on July 5, 2010 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Discipleship, Learnings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.