Psalm 147:11, “The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” I don’t know about you, but growing up when I would hear “fear of the Lord”, it was like, I didn’t get it to be honest. Like I thought we’re no longer slaves to fear. Why are we fearing this? But, I’ve actually learned that fear can mean different things.
And one of the ways that I learned is that my husband is actually a zoologist, so we have wild animals. And so one of them being really humungous snakes and things like that. Right? And I would hear him say to children, when we would go to schools and show them and teach them about animals, that it was actually okay to have a healthy fear. Even though I’m here showing you the animals and telling you, “Hey, you can touch this one, or you can look at this one, or you can take a picture of this one. It’s still very good to have a healthy fear.”
Well, how can you say that to a kid that’s falling in love with this awesome wild animal, but also telling them that they should have a healthy fear? But that’s because fear can also mean to respectfully acknowledge something, right? And so what are you respectfully acknowledging? That’s the difference, right? And so are we respectfully acknowledging our God and how big and amazing and divine He is and who He is in our life, even though He is our Daddy. And even though He is our best friend and all of those things, but we also acknowledge that He’s Dad, it’s like being a son or a daughter of a King. It’s like, yeah, He’s my Dad, but he’s also King. So just know that.
So the same thing; you don’t want to give that respect and acknowledgement to the things that are not God, to the things that are demanding of you, for you to fear. So yes, you are no longer slaves of your own fears, the things that you are giving respect and acknowledgment to that you shouldn’t be; like anxiety, or poverty, or just loneliness, all those things. If you’re giving it all of that attention, then yes, now you are slave to that fear. But, “The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.” Now, if you put your respect and acknowledgement in the Lord, that delights His heart, because He’s like, “Oh, my child knows how big and strong I am.” And He covers you and He takes care of you. So that’s why this verse makes sense now to me and hopefully now to you.
So God, I just pray that the beautiful, good fear of the Lord is upon them. So that way they can no longer be slaves of the fears of this world. And I pray that you strengthen them and give them hope in Jesus’ Mighty Name. Amen.
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