homeschooled – Lesson Nine: Fear of God
Lessons Learned in the Classroom of Life
new YEAR, new YOU
January 21st, 2022
Psalm 40:1-3, ‘I waited and waited, and waited some more, for God. At last, He looked; finally, He listened. He lifted me out of the ditch (the slimy pit), pulled me from deep mud. He stood me on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.’
LESSON NINE: Fear of God
I grew up in an era where the fear of God was such an illusion. Oh goodness, I was so scared of an Almighty God. Even when I learned of a loving Father and a good, good God, I still envisioned Him as an angry Judge, an upset cryptic. We were admonished to fear God in all manners, but it took me a lengthy time to realize that the fear of God is not cowering in fear of Him; rather, it is about living in awe of Him.
Respect was an oxymoron. Aretha Franklin sang about its platitudes; Matthew talked about its beatitudes. I never could quite figure out what type of fear I should have, but awe made sense; honor I knew about.
I lived most my life in fear of something. My parents, a significant other, my children and what effect I would have on them, things going bump in the night, what in life I could not predetermine. I thought fear was dread and avoidance of what I could not anticipate or control; not about what was wrought from esteem and adoration and devotion. It is likely that is because I didn’t really comprehend respect and fear in the same sentence.
Today, I fear God but it is not that I huddle because I am afraid; I kneel due to the depth of my reverence for an Almighty God; One Whom I stand, sit and kneel in awe of, and I hope He constantly reminds me of His stature in my world. He is all I need. I pray I am always reminded of that.
