Mick’s Message

Fearing God

Imagine a chat show on T.V. with guests discussing the root causes of what may be going wrong with our society? After a few points of view have been expressed, one guest states “the main problem we have is that so few people have any fear of God!”  I suspect a comment like that would appear so bizarre to most people it would not even be taken seriously, and be dismissed as an extreme position. If we are to gain any wisdom from the scriptures however we must acknowledge that “fearing God “is exactly what our society needs. We read in the book of Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7;

“THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE”

The “fear” being spoken of is not a terror of being punished, where we recoil in a corner frightened of what God will do to us. It can rather be likened to the affectionate respect a young child may have for his father. Most of us can refer to times at school when some teacher earns our respect and you wouldn’t dream of messing about in their class. Other teachers almost incite “messing about”, but the best of teachers gain both respect and affection from their students. This I think is what God must be given, respect and affection.

If our view of God is simply as a good mate who will give us all we want, we have missed the Bible’s emphasis on remembering exactly who God is. When we witness something of God’s power, it tends to silence us and bring us to a new appreciation of the greatness of our God. We of all generations must learn afresh to stand in awe of God. This is what people did in the New Testament when they saw Jesus at work. In Luke chapter 5 a skeptical crowd saw something of Jesus’ power and was in awe. If we have eyes to see we can witness today the power of Christ all around us. Let’s take note and learn to fear God, so we may gain the basis of true knowledge.

Mick