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Fear, Revere, To Stand In Awe Of, To Honor

"fear" original Hebrew word "ary"
transliterated word is " yare' "
meaning: "to revere, be afraid, to stand in awe of, to honour, respect, to cause astonishment."

What the fear of God looks like in my life.

I am in Awe of Him in His immensity in holiness, righteousness, as the judge of all our hearts, His love and compassion and yet gentleness. Nothing is hidden from Him, it is all laid bare. In response to that being made known to me I am humbled. With genuine humility sometimes comes sadness as the Lord makes known to me my sin. Being in that place of realization of my disobedience brings great disappointment and yet great thanks. I fear the pruning the Lord will do yet I yearn for it.

It is a constant process this fear mixed with awe and reverence as He peels away yet another layer. Similar to how we peel an onion.
Sometimes the result brings burning and tears as I mourn my sin against Him who suffered and died for me. Yet He reveals a new layer that he has prepared. As I grow in Christ, however those layers are constantly becoming damaged in this fallen world by my sin.

Then daily, hourly and sometimes minute by minute, I humble myself before Him and the process starts all over again. At the root of all of that is my fear of the Lord. Fear of hurting Him and yet He forgives me. Fear of damaging His name to others yet His Holy Spirit gives me another opportunity. Fear of wasting the time He has given me to bring Him glory. Fear of missing that opportunity to tell someone about His saving grace. Fear of doing it my way and not His way. Fear of giving into life's distractions from seeking righteousness and holiness.

I also think there are growing numbers in our world today who do not even believe that heaven and hell are real places. So therefore they have nothing to fear. That if God does exist he loves us and will welcome us all into His presence. That is where I believe the Law of God along with a reasoned defense comes in. And then grace to the humble.
Then I think even more concerning is Jesus said the "gate is narrow that leads to life and only a few will find it." Jesus tells us there are weeds sown among the wheat. That at harvest time the weeds will be collected, bond and burned and only the wheat will be brought into his barn.
Matthew 13:24-30

Could that tell of those who look like true followers of Christ, but are unable to produce anything of value for the kingdom of God and will come to a terrible end? Unable because their heart has not really surrendered everything to Him. Like the rich man who came to Jesus. Unwilling to give up his way of life for eternal life? Unwilling to give up his desires in exchange for the Lord's desires which He promises to fulfill?

Bottom line is I feel we must all examine ourselves.
As Paul stated: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you, unless, of course you fail the test?" 1 Cor. 13:5

Sadness comes to me as I feel many at this time will fail the test. My prayer is that we submit to the test while there is still time to do so!

That is what I must do, NOT cause I fear I am without Christ and His Holy Spirit but because I am with Christ and His Holy Spirit has been entrusted to me to bring Him glory by thirsting after holiness and righteousness which is a right standing with God.

Learn more about this author, Jill Prestridge.
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