In this week’s episode, Geoff discusses the importance of the fear of the Lord and how it is lacking in current Christian culture. God is holy and has called us to be holy. But we cannot be wise and walk worthy of our calling unless we have a fear and reverence for Almighty God.
“The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom…” – Psalm 111:10
What does it mean to be wise? Is it merely the gaining of knowledge? We are faced with many decisions every day and our hope is to be able to deal with them wisely. How do we accomplish that? The Bible is clear that wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord. The only way to gain true wisdom is to have a proper perspective of who God is.
The almighty God, Creator and Lord of all, The Perfect One in whom there is no darkness at all. To know that our very breath is in God’s hands and that our heart beat is maintained by His word should strike us with a holy fear and awe of who He really is. We sometimes make God our “buddy” and bring Him down to our level so much that we truly forget the power and majesty of the One True God! It should greatly humble us that God would want to be involved in our lives in an intimate way. When we see God in this proper perspective, how can we dare stand before Him with any amount of pride? Is it not much more fitting for His saints to bow humbly in awe and holy fear before the Holy God we serve?
In any proper parent/child relationship there is the abundance of love and understanding but there should also be the proper level of fear and respect directed toward the parent who is in authority. If we can understand it in human relationships then how much more important is it for us to apply it to our relationship with God. As someone once so eloquently put it; “God is God, I am not.” When we come to this place in our lives when we see God for who He is then maybe we will finally see who we really are and how desperately we needed God’s condescension to save us from ourselves. With this perspective we will then be able to properly apply the knowledge that we have received and that is true wisdom.
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” – II Corinthians 7:1