Turning on the Tap

The concept of "fear of God" has always eluded me. I was brought up in typical modern-Christianese fashion, which states that Jesus is my best friend, he would never let anything bad happen to me, and life with him means a life devoid of fear. What changed us to be these people who have lost any respect for a God so much bigger than anything we could imagine or comprehend?

Going through life in the church only taught me one thing: God loves me. That's a pretty loaded statement. Do we realize what his love for us means? Obviously we have no clue. God: creator of the heavens above and of the earth we stand on, breath-maker, one who encompasses what it means to be good and holy and righteous, father who ordains every heartbeat. He LOVES me. Me. Creator of nothing but sinful thoughts and actions, gap-maker, one who encompasses all that it means to be prideful and self-seeking and stubborn, child who takes every second for granted. The God of the universe loves me. Unthinkable.

And going through this experience of growing up in the church, yet not understanding the full truth of what it means to be loved by God, I have fallen short on taking in the fact that I should hold God in the most amazed awe. He is awesome! He is powerful! He is wondrous! Yet all these human, English words fail to do him justice by a long shot. There is no word on this planet to describe the majesty of our God or the ways in which he works. I think that if we had any idea, we would be scared, literally, to death.

Fear of God is holy reverence, to revere him above all else.

Genesis 31:42 refers to our God as "the fear of Isaac." Here is a man who is so blessed by God, who is being given so many good promises and awesome things, and he knows the honour that his heavenly father is due.

I wonder what God would have to do to make it clear to us that he is worthy of our fear. Yes, he is my best friend. Yes, he loves me and has great mercy and compassion on my life. But no, this does not mean that I can take his tremendous power for granted.

I want to learn what it means to fear God, to live my life as a holy, living sacrifice to him. What would that look like? How much of this world would he be able to affect through me? I can't wait to find out.