Heart of the Matter Word for September

We’ve all been there.  You’re driving merrily along your way.  Your favorite Christian music is playing and you’re singing with all of your might.  Your kiddos are playing in the backseat and you can hear their laughter.  You might even have a McDonald’s medium Coke in the cup holder (ahhh… bliss!:o)  Then, you notice him in your rearview mirror.  You have a policeman behind you…your first thought is, “Is he following me?”

I’m sure you would react like me.  You immediately let your foot off of the gas pedal, check your speed, sit up straight, check your seatbelt, and tell your chatty children to sit pretty.   You realize you’ve checked off all the boxes of what a safe driver should be doing.  You’re okay.  He’s not after you and he’s not going to drag you off to jail.  But there is a little fear there, a fear that makes you check to make sure you are obeying the law!  So you keep checking the rearview mirror to see if he’s still there.

 

Patrick has used this illustration in several of his sermons illustrating the Fear of God.  To fear God is not a trembling/cowering fear that keeps us from God.  The fear that is the “beginning of wisdom”, that we all need, is like having a policeman behind you.  You see him, you recognize that he is there, and you begin to make sure that all you are doing is pleasing to him because of his very presence.  You recognize his presence, his authority, and his power. 

As I’ve read my Bible paying attention to verses talking about the heart, I’ve come across ones like Deuteronomy 10:12, “ And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,” and Psalm 86:11, “ Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

 I knew there would be no way I could do this study this year without picking the word fear.  Yet, I’ve hesitated to pick it.  Why?  Maybe because when we use the word fear we tend to use it in a negative way and it can be hard to define.  We think of scary movies with scary things that make us tremble.   This is not the kind of fear God wants us to have of Him.  In fact, the Bible teaches us that He has not given us this kind of “spirit of fear.” But the Fear of the Lord that we must have in our hearts is just like when we see that police officer following us, we know that he has authority to give us a ticket (or worse!).  We don’t want him to find any fault in us so we keep checking to see if that police officer is still following us and we keep making sure that we are obeying the law.  It’s the same way when we’re striving to have a heart that fears the Lord.  We need to acknowledge that God is always watching us and recognize the authority He has in our life.  We won’t want to disappoint our Lord when we have a heart that fears the Lord and we will strive to please Him in all we do.  

So how can a wife and momma have the “fear of the Lord” in her daily life?  Next week I want to take a practical look at having A Heart that Fears the Lord.