“Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose. They will live in prosperity, and their children will inherit the land. The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant. My eyes are always on the Lord, for he rescues me from the traps of my enemies.”
Psalm 25:12-15 NLT
David asked the question, “Who are those who fear the Lord?” Most people in society don’t fear God at all, and even Christians can fail to treat Him with respect. The God-deniers live in a little bubble, isolated from the Creator of the universe, thinking that He won’t have any interest in them personally, that is, even if they believe that he exists. After all, they say, surely God should take more interest in His creation, stopping human beings from trashing His world. But all these thoughts wouldn’t have occurred to David. He lived in a different bubble, one that included the Lord, and in one that involved the worship and reverence of the One who had done so much for him. David wrote about the benefits of fearing the Lord. Friendship with God, prosperity of body and soul, and rescue from his enemies were three things that he wrote down, but there are many more. We pilgrims have aligned our lives to God’s ways because we found that when we knelt before Jesus, confessing our sins, and embarking on the journey to Glory, we found a treasure of great price. A door opened before us into a world where the Lord is King, and where we found a life of fellowship and friendship with God that will last for all eternity. We found the meaning of Proverbs 1:7a where we read, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge …“.
The word “fear” has different meanings in the Bible. For a believer, we get some idea of what “fear” means from Hebrews 12:28-29, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire”. A “holy fear” is translated “reverence” elsewhere, and it gives an idea of the true response from a believer to his Creator. The proper response to God is one of grateful worship, because of who He is. No other religion has a God who created the Universe, an infinitely immense task on its own (something He did by speaking a Word – “then God said …“), and yet then sent His Son to reconcile man to Himself by dying on a Roman cross at a place called Calvary, providing forgiveness for all sins ever committed. What an amazing God!
To a person who doesn’t believe in God, fearing God is just an emotion and doesn’t apply to them. Religious people live a life that they think irrelevant and primitive. Their belief system is based on evolutionary and astronomic theories, and they think that anything to do with a spiritual life and a Creator God is a figment of imagination in uneducated people. But Jesus said to His disciples, “But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear” (Luke 12:5). There will come a time when God will demand all people to give an account for their lives, and we can read about that terrible day in Revelation 20. I can remember an occasion when two fellow workers were discussing the pro’s and con’s of life insurance, and after much discussion I pointed out that they should also consider death insurance, because after our natural bodies have died, our souls go on to live forever. The “insurance” that only God can supply is there, ready and waiting for anyone to sign up to, with no monthly payments, just a commitment to align their lives to God and follow Jesus. Recently, after watching people running a race in a local park, I said to someone that most of these people spend much of their time pursuing personal fitness for bodies that will wear out and be buried somewhere within 50 or so years, but they neglect the fitness and destiny of their souls that will live forever. Unbelievers have much to fear from God. When they reject Him, they, by default, will find that he will reject them one day. There will be no second chance after they cross the Great Divide and find themselves in a place where they don’t want to be.
To sum up, we turn to a quotation from gotquestions.org, “Believers are not to be scared of God. We have no reason to be scared of Him. We have His promise that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). We have His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Fearing God means having a reverence for Him that greatly impacts the way we live. The fear of God is respecting Him, obeying Him, submitting to His discipline, and worshiping Him in awe”.
So there we have it. We come into God’s presence with a great feeling of awe and reverence, knowing that He loves us and smothers us with His grace and kindness. As His children, there is no better place to be.
Dear Father God. We thank You and honour You, worshiping at Your footstool. In Your presence we find all that we need for life on this earth and beyond. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 