To Fear God is to Worship Him

Proverbs 9:10 (NKJV) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”

Google AI tells me that to fear the Lord is to have a deep reverence for God, His power and His authority. The word ‘fear’ usually leaves us thinking about being afraid, and it can cause us to misconstrue what it should mean when we think about God. In last week’s post, I asked you, Who is God to you? Is He a tyrant from whom you will need to hide your face? If you see Him as such, you will completely miss what it means to fear Him. 

Before I go any further, hey friend! I pray that no matter the week you have been having, you have continued to hold onto God, seeking His face each step. I know some individuals who have been having a challenging week, but seeing how God has breathed into their lives for them to be still and trust Him has been awe-spiring, awesome, and inspiring. 

This entry is another one inspired by Bible Book Club where we looked at 2 Chronicles 17, which is filled with so much power! I have been toying with several ideas for today’s entry, but this one hit differently. As I was praying and asking God to guide me, ' Fear the Lord’ came to mind. I love it when the answers are instant. Now, let’s get to it. 

Early Summary

If we do not fear the Lord and reverence Him, we won’t hide His words in our hearts. If we are not hiding His words in our hearts, we are likely to sin against Him often and be unrepentant. Being unrepentant and sinning is linked to death, and friend, that’s scary.

Let’s talk Fearing God

Okay, back to regular scheduling. Fearing God. I’ll break down how I see it and how it made sense to me. 

Where fear is linked to having reverence for God, it goes back to knowing who God is. When we know who God is, we won’t want to do anything outside of His will. To know that God is our creator, our loving Father, our saviour, helps to lead us to understand why He does not want us to put anything or anyone above Him. 

When we know who God is, and we have that understanding of Him, we will then do our best to keep the commandments, and we will begin to seek Him in everything we do. Matthew 6:33 tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”. This was seen when Jehoshaphat reigned after his father Asa died. Verses 3 and 4 says “Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David,  he did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments and not according to the acts of Israel.” 

Where he sought God, verses 5 and 6 tell us that God established his riches, and he was blessed abundantly. Verses 7 and 8 tell us who he sent out: the leaders, Levites, and priests, who then (v9) “taught in Judah and had the Book of the Law with them.” Their teaching brought the “fear of the Lord” to all the kingdoms around Judah, and there was also peace. 

The scripture that came to mind with that was faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). Being faithful to God is having that deep reverence for Him, but that can only come if we know His words. Just as with those who received His word when Jehoshaphat sent out his leaders, the Levites and the priests. 

Remaining Reverent

When we continue to draw close to God and ask Him to continue to search us and remove anything that displeases Him, we allow Him to change our hearts. If I go to God with a heart of humility and ask that He remove my wicked ways and guide my footsteps, it keeps me from slipping into my sinful nature. 

When we are honest with ourselves, we will present ourselves to God, not just at the beginning of the day, but at multiple points throughout our day. We go to Him constantly and ask that He take charge, and we give Him our plans. When we see something that does not belong to us, we can’t allow our flesh to take over, reaching for what is not ours to keep what is not ours, thou shall not steal (Exodus 20:15). When we have our job, we will not let it consume us, taking our time away from God, thou shalt have no other god’s before Me (Exodus 20:4).

When we seek God, we don’t just go to Him for the sake of it; we go to Him so He can be our strength because our heart is deceptive (Jeremiah 17:9). Our spirit is willing, and we have good intentions, but we must remember our flesh, the sinful nature, that is weak (Matthew 26:41).

This isn’t just a thing we can say, oh yeah, I got baptised, so everything is good. No, we have to be cognisant, we have to know that this, with the temptations in life, will be challenging. Therefore, we must be in constant prayer. We must always present ourselves to God and allow Him to renew us. And this is where worship comes in. 

To Worship Is To…

Worship is about serving. What we do, the things we say, all determine who we worship. Are we worshipping God or ourselves? If we are worshipping ourselves, is this not indicative of us serving the devil? Whether or not we want to agree with that, that is the truth. 

To worship God is to love our neighbours as ourselves. To worship God isn’t just to sing and cry when we get a little emotional. To worship God is to love Him above all else. Running to Him when we fall into old sins. To worship God means being good stewards, helping those around us and not harming our neighbours or family members. To worship God is to be the light of the world, the salt in this world. We can’t lose our flavour or we become like everyone else who doesn’t know Him. 

To worship God, we must ask Him to strip us of pride and ego. We can’t be humble if these two things are sucking our blood. When we are stripped of pride and ego, we let Him take over. We give Him our vessel to be filled by Him, to be used by Him. 

The Final Summary

There are many things to touch on, but I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want this to get too long, we are already at 1000 words. The main thing to remember is that to fear the Lord isn’t to be afraid of Him as though He is an abusive parent. He loves you. To fear Him means you need to be reverent. When that reverence is applied, you trust He’s got this. He has the WHOLE world, therefore, He’s got you. You then move to seek Him intentionally and purposely ensure that you do the things that are pleasing to Him.

Don’t forget, though, this isn’t something you can do alone, so you must have a heart opened to letting Him in, so all things can fall into place.