Godly Fear part 2

INTRODUCTION

Psalm 111:10

What is Godly fear, or as it is called here—the fear of the Lord? Well, Godly fear (the fear of the Lord) is DIFFERENT from the fear of man (Proverbs 29:25).

How do we distinguish the fear of man from the fear of the Lord? The fear of man can be distinguished from the fear of the Lord by....

OBEDIENCE

There is a principle we must never forget—YOU OBEY WHAT YOU FEAR

1Samuel 15:24

Saul feared the people. As a result, He obeyed the people. Therefore, the fear of man will cause you to obey man, while the fear of the Lord will cause you to obey the Lord (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The fear of the Lord is actually a call for obedience. Most Christians have a fear (respect) for God that is too passive (full of platitudes, polite attitudes). But, there is a fear (reverence) that is more than an attitude; it’s a response (Acts 5:27-29).

Such fear requires courage (Deuteronomy 31:6). What is courage?

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the resolve to obey in spite of it.

This brings me to another key difference between the fear of man and the fear of the Lord—

FAITH

Proverbs 29:25

It seems trust (faith) and fear are being used interchangeably. Therefore, we might say that if the fear of the Lord is faith (trust), then the fear of man is the absence of faith (Matthew 8:26).

The disciples’ ‘fear’ was a sign of their lack of faith in God. Therefore, those who walk in fear (the fear of man, of losing one’s life) are not in faith. You can tell which fear you’re walking in by how you view and respond to trouble. If trouble causes you to panic, then you’re not walking in the fear of the Lord (Exodus 20:18-20).

God will put your fear to the test by introducing you to trouble/difficulty. Godly fear views trouble as discipline or training. The fear of man views trouble as judgement or wrath.

We know that we are delivered from wrath (1Thessalonians 1:9, 10). Therefore, we see judgment primarily as chastisement and not as an act of condemnation (1Corinthians 11:32).

When we learn to see judgment as chastisement, we will live cautiously not cowardly (2Corinthians 7:9-10). Paul said, “The ‘sorrow’ or grief you felt was after a godly sort.” Because they saw God in the sorrow or grief, it produced, among other things, fear (2Corinthians 7:11).

Learn to question your fears. Ask yourself, “Do I have a legitimate reason to be afraid?” This helps to expose the irrationality of many of your fears.

Just like the fear of man and the fear of the Lord can be distinguished from each other by obedience and faith, they can also be distinguished by...

LOVE

Deuteronomy 10:12, 13; 13:3, 4

We often think that fear and love are mutually exclusive, but they are actually two sides of the same coin. We obey what we fear, but we also obey what we love. Or, we might say it this way:

We begin by obeying out of fear, but we end by obeying out of love!

A child starts by obeying out of a fear of correction, but, once they gain an understanding, hopefully they will obey out of love. The same is true of us. we might start out obeying God out of a fear of correction (Psalm 111:10). However, as we grow and gain in understanding we obey because we love or want to (Psalm 40:8 GNB).

Psalm 9:20

The principle here is this: fear (judgment) has a tendency to produce humility because it exposes man’s mortality or weakness. But, fear doesn’t just reveal our mortality. It also reveals what we value or love.

Think about it. The thing or person we love or value the most tends to be the thing or person we are most afraid to lose. Furthermore, the thing or person we tend to value the most is the thing or person we look to for approval (identity). Therefore, we fear losing them because in doing so we might lose our identity.

I believe this is why we’re often so eager to win and keep man’s approval—because we feel we derive our identity or self-worth from them. Look at the things or people you are most afraid to lose, they are probably the things or people that most define your identity or worth.

It’s possible God designed us this way so that He might easily prove to us what or who we truly love the most. You can tell what/who a person loves the most by what they are most afraid to lose!

It seems, fear is located in the place our treasure is stored (Matthew 6:21).

We might say, “Where a man’s treasure is there his fear (obedience, love and his heart) is!”

How do we change this? We change this by seeking approval (self-worth) from God alone. However, to do this we may need to be put in a situation where we’re unable to receive man’s approval. In fact, God may have to cause the people we ‘love,’ and whose approval we desire, to hate us (Psalm 105:23-25).

God delivered Israel from Egypt (world) by causing them to be hated by the Egyptians (Matthew 10:22)!

We might pretend that we are autonomous and we determine our identity for ourselves. However, deep down we understand that our identity is derived external sources. This is why after we have ‘self-identified’ we seek for others to affirm us! We want society and the culture around us to agree with us. We desperately want their approval. We know that identity is something that must be bestowed upon us by a person. Moreover, the person(s) we bestow the most authority to define who we are and what we are worth is the person we fear the most. It’s because it’s the person whose approval we want the most.

Now, the solution to this is not to simply resist the temptation to seek approval from external sources. The solution is what source we seek it from—God.

Get ready because God teaches these lessons by putting us in difficult situations and requiring us to obey in spite of feeling afraid.