I have been thinking much on fear in the last few months… the fear of the Lord, the fear of man, fear as an emotion/feeling, and the rightful and wrongful places it holds in our lives.
Tonight I began wondering… what if fear – like love – was to be considered in the realm of verbs – action words – rather than primarily as a feeling word? Would that help in times of difficulty and decision?
One of the definitions I looked at tonight used the words ‘reverence and awe’ in terms of the fear of the Lord. I found this an interesting concept to apply to the people we fear… not speaking about physical harm here… but those we amend and edit our personalities and opinions for – for fear they will judge, or not understand or won’t like or approve or accept us etc. Isn’t that reverencing them? Holding them in a kind of awe – that their opinion should matter SO much?
When I did a recent study on the fear of the Lord – the simplest way I could summarise what I saw was this – “to give Him heed”. In other words, to pay attention, to believe, to act on His words and in response to His being – ACTION.
What if in fear of man, we could recognise where we’re giving undue heed to a person – such that their opinions were not to be heeded, addressed, met, sought – over and above what God states is truth?
I wonder if separating the feeling and actions of fear of man – would help keep God in His rightful place as the Primary focus of our reverence and awe…
Someone said to me recently “maybe its time to get your brave on”… in this case, getting my brave on was like putting trout fishing dungarees on over the top of my existing clothes. Fear as a feeling was still there – but brave as an action did its job over the top. Fear as an action – did not hold sway.
Just like love sometimes has to be actions over feelings.
Fear the right thing… Reverence and awe where it belongs and not where it doesn’t.
Just thinkin’…
Proverbs 29:25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.
Proverbs 19:23a The fear of the LORD leads to life…
Psalm 56:3 When I am afraid (feeling), I put my trust in you (action)