Good Fear!

Good Fear!

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 KJV

First of all, there is a good fear and a bad fear. There is a fear that cripples, preventing you from doing what God requires you to do, and there is another fear that keeps you away from pride, as you make impact on the earth where you have been placed. Both may be termed fear, but each flows out from different sources and have different eternal outcomes. I need to know which one is appropriate if I seek to make impact on God's earth. 

The good fear has God as its centre and motivation. As long as any other person or thing is the inspiration behind what I do or say, I don't have the correct version. This fear keeps me away from all that is impure and untrue; keeps me constantly and daily dependent on God. And I note that this fear is not something that comes and goes, but it is something that must stay with me if my life will remain relevant in God's hands.

It is a journey that never stops as long as I am on this side of earth. I don't get it all at once, but it is a journey I must undertake. The fear of the Lord opens my heart to seek to know more of Him. It is that knowledge of Him that drives my understanding of who He is and what He wants from me. How do I understand a God whose ways I do not even know? How do I walk with a God whose paths I have not even defined or worked out?

And just like everything God does, He gives me the power of choice. If there were no choices, how would I seek God for myself? How would I appreciate the value of what I have received? There is an opposite side to all that is written above and it has to do with the perspective of the fool. A fool has been defined as anyone who says there is no God. To deny the existence of God is to deny his Word and Ways. If you do not know Him, or do not seek Him out, you can never know the value of the Wisdom that only He can give. If I do not seek His Word out, how would I receive instruction on how to live to please God and avoid sin and punishment?

Any knowledge I pursue that does not lead to a healthy fear of and reverence for God is not the right kind of knowledge. If what I know is not founded on God, it can never achieve God's divine purposes or lead where God intends. Fools do not know God or his ways, and will not submit to His direction and control. A fool does not understand the divine and will never appreciate the treasure that a personal experience of God can birth in a man. This is the time to evaluate again what my priorities are. Is God the sole focus or one of many options? Is my heart full of the healthy fear of God or is there room for other dependencies? The eternal is at stake here; nothing of this world will last forever. Get the foundation right; get the eternal right. His time of favour is here.