The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear (revere Him above all else) God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.*
Oswald Chambers
Having the fear of man will keep one from entering deep into the rest of God.
Talk about the ultimate win-win situation; pleasing God by doing His Word sets me free and enables me to enter His supernatural, all-comforting rest. Wow…
I can’t think of anything that has scared me more in life than thinking I was going to die due to my health issues, and the inability to control life. Back in the 1980s, the psychiatrist I met with gave me a book written by a Harvard or Yale doctor about my condition. My doctor gave us some hope by explaining that medicine might help me. The book said that many like me end up on drugs, alcohol, and even turn to suicide.
In Matthew 24:21, the Bible tells us that end times conditions will bring the largest amount of fear (great tribulation) to ever come on the world (including both world wars) – and it is about to be unleashed. People who have had control over their lives will not know how to cope with losing all control.
Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path?
Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back?
They cling tightly to their lies
and will not turn around.
Jeremiah 8:5 NLT
Great fear can also have a good outcome if it causes one to turn to God and choose to trust Him fully.
It just makes sense that if there was a better way to live than the way God tells us to live in His Word that He would have told us so, right? I mean, He’s Adonai, God All-Mighty. He, alone, can keep those who trust in Him, those who take on His ways.
When you think about it, pride can make you think you need to fret, worry and take on care. After all, none of us wants to appear irresponsible, right? We like to “have all our ducks in a row.”
What if there was another way?
There is another, higher way. God’s way. It takes humility (it is so wonderful to discover how life-changing, freeing, and comforting humility can be) to live free in this higher realm by surrendering and transferring the fear of man and all other cares to God.
God commands us to cast all (every bit of it, even our very lives) our care on Him, to trust Him in all things and to believe that He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him. Those who have learned to live this new way – by memorizing and applying God’s Word to their daily lives no matter the circumstances – have experienced the amazing comfort available to those who choose to enter into the door leading to God’s rest.
25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Luke 12:25-26
Worry and care leads to more of the same. God sent His Word to deliver us from worry and care, and all the rest like unforgiveness, pride, jealousy…On the other hand, believing and trusting God leads to more of the same. The Bible tells us the choice is ours.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you (we must all choose) this day (every day) whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (we will choose to apply Jesus to our lives every single day).
Joshua 24:15
4 And when the chief Shepherd (Jesus) shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. 5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Peter 5:4-7
One day with You (God) is better than a thousand in the palaces of kings. You are my Adonai, my Lord and Master. You call my name, and a flood of joy overflows. You command my life, and a fountain of confidence takes over. You are my Lord, and I praise You today. Amen.**
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Psalm 23:6
Thanking and praising God in all things (Ephesians 5:20),
Mark
Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.
* What does it mean to have the fear of God?
For the unbeliever, the fear of God is the fear of the judgment of God and eternal death, which is eternal separation from God (Luke 12:5; Hebrews 10:31). For the believer, the fear of God is something much different. The believer’s fear is reverence of God. Hebrews 12:28-29 is a good description of this: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire.’” This reverence and awe are exactly what the fear of God means for Christians. This is the motivating factor for us to surrender to the Creator of the Universe. Gotquestions.org
** Prayer to Adonai taken from Christianity.com