Fear God

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12:13a-b

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God

Insights:   The subject for today’s Thoughts by Scott is not something new about for which I am to write.  It is, however, a subject I believe is severely lacking in the church of America.  If a survey of church people had been taken in the nineteenth century in regards to God’s predominant character trait, the people would have responded with His holiness.  If you were to take that same survey today, the answer would be God’s love.  Is God infinitely loving?  Absolutely!  Is He also infinitely holy?  Again, the answer would be a resounding yes!  Somewhere along the line, however, we as believers have lost sight of God’s holiness and His otherness, which is the reason He is to be feared.  Throughout the Scriptures we are admonished to fear the Lord.  We then try to down play this fear and talk about reverence or respect as the meaning behind this type of fear.  As I have written before, I think we are missing something when we minimize our fear of the Lord God.  He is to be feared because He is God and we are not.  Now remember the context of today’s thoughts.  Monday and Tuesday we looked at the conclusions of a desperate man.  In other words, Solomon’s premise after trying everything imaginable in life was the man was incapable of understanding and destined to repeat the cycle of life over and over again.  As a result, Solomon was frustrated.  The rest of the book is Solomon’s arguments for his desperate conclusion.  We then come to the last two verses of the book and God reveals to Solomon the whole reason we traverse through this world and it is for one reason.  Friday we will look at that reason, but the starting point to get to that concluding purpose is the fear of the Lord.  Solomon in these last two verses is basically understanding the call of a devoted man and beginning to understand the vast distinction between his years of desperation and his concluding wisdom he has now gained as a devoted man to the Lord.  It is as if Solomon were saying, “If I had truly feared the Lord as I ought to have, I would have saved myself years of misery as I tried to figure life out on my own.  How foolish was I for all my mental prowess?”  Beloved, I think we ought to learn from Solomon’s true conclusion of the matter—let us fear the Lord!

Questions:

1. Does your life reflect a proper fear of the Lord?
2. In what ways do you display proper fear of the Lord?

Prayer: Father, You are sovereign and worthy of fear and admiration.  My problem is I often times take you for granted and do not revere Your holiness as I ought.  Forgive me for my disrespect and transform my heart to love and honor You as You rightly deserve.  Amen.