Healthy Fear

So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace, being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, and it increased in numbers. - Acts 9:31 HCSB

A church that wants to multiply and grow in its life and spirit must develop a healthy fear of God. It should look at the world and understand in the depths of its collective soul how much is yet to be done and tremble at the task. When we truly open our eyes and see the truth of our circumstances, we will do what is only right and proper – drop to our knees before the sovereign Lord and beg His forgiveness and mercy.

We should be frightened when we see the righteousness of God and the purity of His holiness. Every time a person came face to face with God in the Bible, they fell to their faces as dead men and feared for both their physical lives and their souls. What else could a man feel when brought face to face with his own sinfulness and fragile mortality? To walk in the fear of the Lord is to look at ourselves as well as the world around us and realize the terrible contrast between the way things should be and the way they are.

Some may say, “I do not have to fear God. He is my Father. Jesus is my brother. I fear nothing!” But if we ever lose our awe of God, if we lose sight of the greatness of the task at hand and our own inadequacy, then we will have lost the source of power. The fear of God, the sense of the gap between how God would have His world and how we have made things, could paralyze us if that was all there was to it. The gap is real, the consequences terrible, but a healthy Christian realizes that the gap is not all there is. After all, did not the Master say, “God blesses those who realize their need for him”?[1]

We Christians must gather together and seek the will of God with an attitude of abject, humble obedience. As we unite under His banner and show the proper reverence He is due, our courage will rise within our breasts and we will be able to face the world in all its awfulness and actually do something about it. The Spirit will infiltrate our congregations as more and more of our members yield their lives to His control and through us will do greater things than we could ever imagine. We will be bold as lions, gentle as lambs, wise as serpents yet harmless as doves.[2]

It is only when we admit that we have been and continue to be in desperate need of God’s mercy and grace that we will walk in the fear of the Lord and discover the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

[1] Matthew 5:3-4
[2] Matthew 10:16