THE FEAR OF THE LORD

THE FEAR OF THE LORD

One of the phrases that is repeated often in the book of Proverbs is "the fear of the Lord." I have been preparing for a message that I will share this morning, and it has been an interesting study (just scratching the surface) on understanding the concept of what it means to fear the Lord.

Bill Gothard says: "The fear of the Lord is the continual awareness that God knows, weighs and sees, every one of my thoughts, deeds, words and actions."

That is a pretty powerful definition. As I did a phrase search through the Scriptures, I learned several principles about "the fear of the Lord" that I would like to share with you over the next couple of days.

The fear of the Lord is a concept that was to be taught by fathers to their children. There is a huge market right now in a series of books on a variety of topics from auto repairs to developing a strategic plan. You've probably seen the series ... "Auto Repairs for Dummies" and the list goes on.

Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, not for dummies, but so that we would have an instruction manual for life. For dads in particular, this is a great training manual for teaching our kids and grandchildren on how to fear the Lord.

There are three ways that we can teach this life-changing concept:

1. Instruction. The Word of God is such a powerful tool in our lives. That is why it is so important that we spend time in it every day. Not just reading it, but meditating on it and memorizing it. Most of us have experienced the pain of trying to put something together without reading the instruction manual. We get to the end of the project and there are three or four pieces left over! We end up having to start over. We could have saved ourselves time, energy and frustration, if we had just taken the time to read the manual.

2. Example. My grandson Tanner is very inquisitive. He constantly asks, "What's that?" which is helping him learn much about life. One of my favorite vacation spots is Disney World (don't send me letters, please). I enjoy visiting there for many reasons, but one of the things I like to do is observe what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. They have worked hard at serving people, and since I am serving in that field, I can learn much by their example. I have a copy of their "training manual" which is over 1000 pages. The easiest way for me to learn is by example. The Scriptures contain many biographies of men who feared the Lord. They weren't perfect, but we can learn from their examples. You can also read biographies of great men like D. L. Moody, Jonathan Edwards, George Mueller, etc., to learn how they lived their lives.

3. Application. All the knowledge in the world doesn't mean a thing if we don't apply it. I have come back from a trip to Disney with lists of things I have learned. If I don't do anything but file the information in the folder, there was really no value in taking the time to observe and learn. I have just gathered useless information. The value in observing and learning is taking the information and using it in my world.

All that to say, over the next couple of days, I want to give you some observations about the fear of the Lord that I am learning so that together we can apply the principles to our lives. Hopefully you will use what we learn to teach your kids and grandkids. And the principles work in every area of life.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10