“And now, O Israel, what does the
Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his
ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you
today for your own good?”
Deuteronomy
10:12-13
It is the
fear of God that initiates our faith. Before we can walk in His ways, love Him,
serve Him, and observe His commands we first must carry with us a healthy fear
of God. Proverbs 1:7 tells us that the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It precipitates our faith in
Christ. At some point as believers in Jesus Christ we discovered that we were
sinners, that our sin had separated us from God, and that He would one day
judge the wicked. We learned that our sinful lives earned us eternal death. Romans 6:23 declares that the wages of sin is
death.
However,
Christ came to save us by taking the penalty of death upon Himself. Through His death, He has given us the gift
of eternal life. Unfortunately, many have concluded that since the penalty for
sin has been paid, we then are free to live as we see fit without fear of any
future judgment.
We are no
longer driven to work out our salvation with fear and trembling because we do
not see the benefit of continuing to fear God. However, to lose the fear of God
is to lose our faith and to be cut off from the promises of God. When Moses
came down off the mountain, he found the people steeped in sinful activity.
They did not carry with them the fear of the Lord and had quickly slipped into
sin. Moses saw the people were running wild and he stood at the entrance of the
camp and said:
“Whoever is for the
Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites, rallied to him.”
Exodus
32:26
Moses
instructed the Levites that rallied to him to strap on a sword and to go back
and forth through the camp and cut down those who refused to come out of their
sinfulness. The word of God tells us that around 3,000 people were killed that
day. They were cut off from the promises of God, because they did not carry the
fear of God for themselves.
We must be
carriers of the fear of the Lord! It is the fear of God that initiates our
faith. God wants to inspire you today; not to serve Him more , love Him more,
or worship Him more, but He desires to inspire you to fear Him:
“I will make an everlasting covenant
with them; I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to
fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.”
Jeremiah
32:40
Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/
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