Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

Fear not!

 

 

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?

John 12:15 "FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SITTING ON A DONKEY’S COLT."

Romans 3:18  "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."

1 John 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

 

Fearing God

A sense of fear is associated with the worship of the Living God.  Most commentators try to translate the fear of God as reverence for God.  But while the word involves reverence, it really involves much more than that.  That is why we read in 1 John 4:18 that perfect love (Christ) casts out fear which involves torment. 

 

I am sure that we have all been tormented by fear at times.  Fear can keep us from making bad decisions.  For example, if we fear getting involved in a car accident, we will not drink and drive nor will we text and drive.  Many of us fear things that are beyond our control.  We fear cancer and heart attacks and stroke.  We may fear being alone.

 

One fear we should all have is the fear of God.  Our world is out of control because society or the world naturally speaking has no fear of God.   Romans 3:18 says that there is no fear of God before their eyes.  People do not want to be accountable to a holy God.  They want to be able to define good and bad just as Eve wanted to do in the garden.  People do not see eternal consequences with regard to the decisions that they make.  However, the fear of God in the sense of dread and accountability seems to be a very important part of our relationship with God.  Because of our confidence that the Lord judges sin, many of us have been convicted of our sinnership and have turned to the Lord for salvation.  Now we no longer have to fear judgment.  There may be practical consequences associated with sin and bad decisions now, but our sins have been forgiven as far as the Lord is concerned.  We may fear the process of death, but we don’t need to fear the after-life.  We no longer need to fear meeting God.

 

Fear Not

John 12:15 tells the children of Israel to fear not.  As I go through the old testament and the new, I am encouraged by the number of places where we are told not to fear.  I have to admit, that the older I get, the more I find to fear.  Yet, I take courage in the fact that when the children of Israel were boxed in at the Red Sea, Moses told them not to be afraid but to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord (Exodus 14:13).  In the New Testament we are told to not be anxious, we are told to cast our care on the Lord, we are told over and over again not to worry.  I suppose worrying is somewhat different than fear but for me they are related.  I tend to worry about things I can’t control.  I worry that the things I fear are going to happen. I can even worry about the fact that I worry.

 

I realize that if I really trusted the Lord as I should, I would never worry about the necessities of life.  I would live like sparrows or like the lilly of field that God feeds and clothes.  I would only need to worry about pleasing the Lord. 

 

Thank God I don’t have to fear eternity.  That worry has been taken resolved because I have taken God at His word when He says in John 5:24,  "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”  Now we all need to have the same confidence in the Lord’s provision and care right now that we who are saved do in His promise of eternal life for eternity.

 

Bruce Collins

 

Meditation for the week of January 14, 2018

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