2009 – Day 88.Mar. 30 – A Healthy Fear

2009 – Day 88.Mar. 30 – A Healthy Fear

Passage of the Day: Exodus 19: 16 - 25 …Link to Exodus 19 …

My Journal for Today: Swindoll closes his devotional this day by quoting from Psalm 119: 103 – 105; and I want to begin my journal entry with this reverent reference to God’s word …103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, … Sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 Through Your precepts I get understanding; … Therefore I hate every false way. 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Whoever the Psalmist was for this wonderful Hebrew poem really had a genuine reverence and fear of God and a love affair with His word. And that should be the attitude we Christians should have. In fact our attitude should be a reflection of what the people of God must’ve felt when Moses was called up to Mount Sinai to be with God as the Lord inhabited that place. Swindoll asks us to imagine what it must have been like as the cloud of God’s presence descended upon the top of the mountain and the ground around the encampment of the people rumbled.

But unfortunately we believers in God don’t have that kind of fear of God shining a light on our path. Remember, these people, who no doubt bowed in fear and reverence as God came upon the Mountain Moses ascended, were the same people who would, in a short time, build a golden calf to worship. No, the reality of our lives, even as believers, is that we let selfish choices creep into our conscious lives; and I agree with Swindoll that in those moments of sinfulness, we “… momentarily block out any fear of God.” Swindoll goes on to write, “A healthy fear of God will hold us in awe and do much to deter us from sin. … When we actively engage in sin, we consciously put aside what we know to be the truth about God. We deliberately suppress the knowledge of Him in our hearts and minds.”

That’s why the Psalmist of Psalm 119, proposed God’s prescription for avoiding sin, when he wrote a prayer to God, (in verses 9 - 11), ... How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my who heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart … that I might not sin against You.” And that is why mentor used to teach me that to know God (really know Him through His word) is to love God; and when we love God, we will reverence and obey our God as we serve Him. I do pray that I will come to grow in my knowledge of my God, primarily through His word; because I want to hold on to the awe of His very Name so that I can have the humility which is needed to receive and use His enabling grace.

Again to quote Swindoll: "When you come to that understanding, and God’s light breaks into your life like the pure whitewater of a rushing river, you learn to thoroughly hate and dread those actions that will plunge you into darkness.” And to close this circle, I refer any readers here again (above) to meditate on Psalm 119: 103 – 105.

My Prayer for Today: Oh, Lord, may I never lose my awe of Your truth and the reality of your Holy Name. Amen