It seems that there is no respect for God today in our society. It appears that we are told to respect so many other rights, but not the right to serve God. As a matter of fact, we can hardly impose our right to serve in most places other than our Churches. It seems that other rights are seemingly more important than the believers. This is causing a devastating effect today. It is obvious that at some point society has proclaimed that either God should be obsolete in our world or that God is irrelevant in all our world and that we should keep our belief within the proper confines. Although I agree that serving God is an individual choice (free will), I do not believe that there should be a mandate on what we as believers can and cannot do when it comes down to corporate decision making as a people. As believers we should be able to stand firmly and speak about our God, we should be able to raise our children to believe and trust in God, to pray openly and collectively in any and every structure, institution or at any event. However, this is not the case in the world we are living in today. It is sad to think if there is news about spirituality, godliness, goodness etc. that it has to be printed in a certain section of the newspaper or in certain magazines or certain television stations. When anything and almost everything negative has front page headlines and are the top stories on most of the news channels on television. It is reported over and over and over again. It is as if something is going forth so people are so accustomed to negativity that hearts are desensitized. Can it be assume that more people want to hear negative news rather than positive news and negative is more exciting than positive? Is our society more entertained with the negative? Is this because we do not fear God? Should we fear God? My attempt to answer this aged old question in these perilous times has much to do with the fact that when I look around I see little respect for God in our society and I believe that this contributes to a lot of what is going on. It is the lack of fear that has made our world what it is today. A world with people who do not understand God and do what they desire to do without any fear of consequences. We no longer believe that God disciplines and judges His people. We have become complacent, and feel that we have no need to fear. That God is good and will not allow a people that He loves to fear Him. It sounds strange to this generation of believers because they only view God as a friend. However, we must get back to the right fear of God as a people or we will continue to be misled. The fear of God is liken to an employee who is not “afraid” of his supervisor but through a “respect” of his position adheres to the established guidelines set in his job position knowing that if he does not work up to the expectations set before him that the supervisor has the potential and right to withhold a promotion, deny salary increases or to fire him/her. He works diligently to do what is expected of him in the position with an awareness of the consequences if he does not. He has the right fear of the authority over him and it gives him the proper respect for his superiors. Another example are children who fear their parent. It is a fear that comes from respect for the position that their parents hold. God’s children understand this concept and understand that God is never spiteful , unfair or vengeful in His dealing with us. God is love, but He does not like sin and allows us to correct any sin in our lives and restore a right relationship with Him when we fall short. If there were more people fearing a Holy, Loving God, there would be a whole lot less turmoil in this world. We should be so in tuned with God that we fear hurting God by being disobedient. Our love of God should make us afraid to hurt Him. It’s like your spouse or your children. We do not intentionally hurt our children or our spouse. We are careful in how we treat our spouse, children, family members and friends. Because we know if we treat them without love and respect then they will turn away from us. We should show the same love and respect to our Heavenly Father. Our relationship with God is a parent/child hierarchy and we all know that if we do not chastise our children into obedience they will remain in disobedient. We should not fear that God will let us down, or that He is not faithful, or just, or forgiving. We need not fear that God will fail us or give up on us, but rather that He is indeed faithful to finish what He has started. The “Fear of the Lord” refers to the awe and reverence we should have for God because we recognize that He is God and we are His creation, wholly dependent upon him. Fear should not be confused with fright; fear is the respect that we show God through humble submission. We must not only be aware of His loving kindness and tender mercies, but aware that He also is our judge.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge (Proverbs 1:7).

Blessings Always,
Rhonda

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 8:36 pm and is filed under EC Chatter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.