PRESSING FORWARD PART B

Ecclesiastes 7:10 Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

The second point we want to look at is "fear of God". Now I can with certainty tell you there is a healthy fear of God, which will draw you to Him and there is an unhealthy fear of God which will cause you to run from Him.

A healthy fear sees the Awesomeness of God, sees His power, His grace, His mercy, His love and seeing ourselves compared to Him we realize how much we fall short and how much we need Him, for we are nothing without Him. This fear will produce a reverence for God and a love an adoration for who He is, it will produce a desire to learn more of Him, to seek His presence, a desire to please Him and move us to worship.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever. 

But what about an unhealthy fear? This of God foes not see His grace, His mercy or His love; it can only see He is a holy and just God who will bring judgment on the wicked. They cannot see hope for themselves because tormenting fear has paralyzed them from seeing God as He truly is. Jesus spoke a parable about talents read for yourselves Matthew 25:14-30 I am going to write only two verses. In the parable a man traveled to a far country and as he left he gave talents to his servants. Let stop here a moment this is not about money it is about each of us are born with God given talents and abilities,  these are not spiritual gifts but what He has given us to use to bring Him glory and to help us to fulfill the purpose He has for us. In the parable each servant used and multiplied their talents except one servant. This servant was given one talent and buried it away and did not use it. Here is his reason for burying his talent.

Matthew 25:24-25 Then he who had received the one talent came and said, "Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours."

Do you see the unhealthy fear? Another example is from my own story. When I was 9 years old my father died. Not understanding death, God, or heaven, I became angry and fearful, refusing to go back to church and saying "I hate God, because He killed my daddy and I was afraid He was going to kill me." And so this not understanding and no one explaining kept me terrified of God and running from Him until I was 27 years old. I am thankful that though I have run from God more than once in my life I now run to Him.

One more word Trembling, when I looked up the meaning it said to shake with fear or shake with excitement. 

There is a balance in everything, yes we through Jesus Christ, have the confidence to come boldly before His throne of grace, we have been called friends of God not based on our performance but based on what Jesus did for us, we have access through prayer to talk to God and listen to His still small voice speaking with us, we can talk to Him about everything and we can sob with Him over our circumstances but in all of this we must never forget He is a sovereign God, all knowing, all powerful, ever present God. To take our relationship so casually would be very foolish. A casual relationship says I can go my own way and visit as it pleases me. But we are in an intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe, a God who desires to be in every aspect of our lives, not just on Sunday perhaps Wednesday or when trouble comes. He is with us through the good and the bad times, He is God and He never changes. Think about the awesomeness of God and the power He holds, then remember He loves you, He holds onto you and He will not leave you nor forsake you. What a God we serve.

Planning to finish up chapter 2 next week. Hope you enjoy the new blog format it is simple and will be easy to use.