Fear (continued)

My goal with this blog is to help people be strong physically, emotionally, and most importantly, spiritually. Since God made us we can't compartmentalize our lives and leave Him out in the areas we pick and choose. I hope this has helped you. Please tell your friends about me, and let's leave lots of comments, even if you don't agree. I want to keep the dialog going and make this a place where we really examine what we believe and why. Our mind-set is important to our physical and spiritual development. God can, and should be a part of everything we do.

I felt the need to expound on the blog on fear. I wanted to flesh it out more thoroughly and especially add the scripture references I promised.

There are many references to fear in the Bible. In the original language fear has to do with submitting, bowing down to, or revering. In Joshua 1:9 God told Joshua to be strong and of good courage, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. He told him this because Joshua was going to have to take the Isrealites into battle with the King of Ai. God didn't want them to come under this evil king's rule. God wanted to be their Father. He didn't want them to be abused. Let's compare the fear of man and the fear of God.

It's hard for me to grasp the meaning of the "fear" of God, because fear sounds like shaking and cowering, however, reverence is the way the Bible describes it. Rather than scared and timid, reverence has to do with a willing, loving, submission to God. The fear of man has to do with making someone scared. I see fear as something, or someone, having power over us. When someone abuses another either physically, emotionally, or in some other way, they've taken that persons power away from them, or at least attempted to. However, God deserves our reverence and people don't. God doesn't force us to worship Him, He woos us to Himself. For some reason He left us with a free-will. I think He doesn't want robotic worship, but willing, loving devotion. No one else should be able to control us, except God, since He made us to begin with. We aren't to be afraid of man, but we are to fear God in the sense that we allow Him to rule our lives. He won't abuse us like people might. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power (miraculous), and of love, and of a sound mind (self-control)." I added Strong's concordance original language translation in the parenthesis.

In all this we know that God won't hurt us. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says that He knows the thought or plans He has for us, plans for peace and not for evil, plans for a hope and a future. In other words He will NOT harm us. Just remember that when we are hurt, because in this world we will be, God is not the one who planned or orchestrated it. John 16:33 tells us "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

The bottom line is that everyone was designed to worship God. We will find something, or someone, to worship (fear, reverence) because we were made to worship. The problem is that after Adam and Eve's sin we put other things and people in God's place. So we need to fear God, rather than man.

Psa 111:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth forever."