Do you fear the Lord, or are you afraid of the Lord?
Oh fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. Psalm 34:9
Holy Father,
We confess, especially in our culture,
which loves to focus on your
“nearness to the brokenhearted” (Ps. 34:18),
we often forget to focus on growing
in the “fear of the Lord.”
Some of us also have experienced upbringings
or ministry leaders
who darkly threatened us with the Lord’s wrath
in messages filled with shame and condemnation
but utterly lacking in the equally true reality
of your mercy and forgiveness for our sins.
Help us to settle into a place
of an appropriate fear of the Lord
that settles all of our fears.*
To fear you as our Father,
the one who has loved and adopted us
is to desire to please you,
to honor you,
to recognize that you are greater
than all of our fears.
Because you are the Sovereign, the King,
who rules over all,
our souls tremble appropriately
as we approach you
even as we claim a hope
based in the death and resurrection of your Son
that you will admit us into your presence.
Holy Father, grow in us a “holy fear.”
Such fear “delivers us from all our fear”
and reminds us that you provide all we need (Ps. 34:4, 9).
Amen.
Read Psalm 34; Matthew 10:28; Proverbs 1:7; Rev. 15:4.
*For a brilliant and readable book on this topic, I highly recommend A Holy Fear: Trading Lesser Fears for the Fear of the Lord by Christina Fox.
