Heaven or Earth

 The battle over fear, to fear rightly, it's in the mind.  In our trials, in our struggles and day to day, we are cognizant of the temporal, of how we feel, and so often we respond out of those feelings. How cognizant are we of the unshakable things? The things more real than what we see but just beyond our vision?

   Had a good sermon today at Lifepoint on Wisdom, the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord. Prov 1:7.  He defined the fear of the Lord in three ways.
 1. Awe - and this awe may cause us to tremble and fall on our face but fills us with hope, stirs up something deep within us that will give everything for this One, stirs up all that is good and right and elevates us to a new and better place. 



























In contrast with this, fear of earthly things can stir up terror.  This feeling leaves us cowering, often paralyzed, anxious, distraught, crushing.  Not the lightness and joy that Awe brings but a weight, a heaviness that can threaten to disable us and weaken us.
 Eyes wide open rather than eyes closed/sheltered.

2. Holy.  The Fear of the Lord causes us to cry "holy".  To declare the goodness and altogether otherness of Him who sits on the throne highly exalted yet intensely loving and kind.  It brings us to something far and above all circumstance.  It calls to the deep within us and gives us longing and impetus to change, to see and bring about good, to partner with Him and desire to be more like Him. 

Fear of earthly things is unholy - stirred up by the designs of dark and evil things, connotes things broken, taken advantage of, intents of wicked people or forces upon others.

  

3. Submission to the Word.  The Fear of the Lord brings about action, brings us in to good things, makes us better, gives us strength and courage to walk in paths we never would have imagined and to reach out and grab others along the way of LIGHT to join us.  It gives us a higher standard, not moved or shaken by earthly things, things that change, fluctuate, based on whims of culture or circumstance or scheming but driven by the "deep magic", as CS Lewis says in Narnia, written into the very foundations of the earth and established in the heavens.  It's rooted in unshakable promises of truth and life made by a God who is over all things and is good.  What does the opposite of that look like?  Submission to any fears based on lies told us by the world or by ourselves, or the enemy whispering in our ears.  Submission that brings us places we never wanted to go, that leads us into destruction and pain and mars all God created us for and to. We begin to act and think based on moment by moment, temporal things, making decisions based on fear rather than faith that lead us bound and broken...but even there, there is hope because there is a Savior who can set us free.  Free to Fear the Lord in Heaven and be set free from the fears of earth but His great love!