The Fear of the Lord (part 2)

This was lot of introduction to say that the fear of the Lord is not something that God demands. It is like His commands. Though they are truly commands, God gives us the choice of whether or not to obey.

Do we fear God? Do we understand Who He is? Do we truly know Him? If we do, then obeying His commands is much easier.

1 John 5 reads:

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome

We truly need to see God as our Father and when we do then we will begin to understand Him. He does everything for us out of His great love. His commands proceed out of His love for us. They are guard rails for our lives to keep us safe from destruction. They are not barbed wire fences to keep us out of a place of joy and fun.  This is why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 

We have to proceed to wisdom from a place of reverential awe of God as our Father who is full of wisdom and knowledge. We, too often, as believers, turn from the greatest source that we have for wisdom and understanding. If we had an earthy father who was truly wise, was a resource for us for a variety of things, would we not seek him out and ask him? Would we not be grateful for him? Would we not honor and respect him? Would we not cultivate a rich relationship with him because just being around him is so beneficial for us?

God does everything that He does as a Father for our benefit not His own. He needs nothing. The only reason that God does what He does is because of His great love for us. Are there consequences for our sin and disobedience? Of course, but those consequences flow out of our rebellion against God and a loving Father. 

Look at the parable of the prodigal son. This is a good picture of the decisions we make affecting us in a negative way. I am not afraid of God for the wrong reasons. I am afraid of the consequences of my poor and sinful decisions. But that is on me not on God. 

God has so ordered the universe that the natural and spiritual laws work when we don’t think about them. We rejoice at the natural and spiritual law of sowing and reaping. Who plants a single corn seed in the ground and expects a harvest of one seed in return? Most ears have 800 kernels. We plant a thousand seeds and get a harvest of 3 ears per corn plant times 800 then times 1000 for a harvest of 2.4 million kernels!

Imagine the harvest of an evil deed planted. This law was meant for our good, and can be seen in the corn but, when we sinned and started planting evil the law remained in affect.