Devotionals

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Fear This

“But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” Luke 12:15 (ESV)

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite t-shirts was a dark blue “No Fear” shirt. You remember, the slogan appeared on everything accompanied by witty qualifications like, “Respect All, Fear No One” and “There’s No Fear in Fierce”.
The command not to fear, is the most frequently issued command in the Bible, but equally important, we are told over and over to, “Fear the Lord”. How do we reconcile these commands; what is God really getting at? In both these commands, each time they are used, the root word is the same, yare’, meaning both, “to terrify and to awe or amaze, honor and respect”. Boiled all the way down, the truth is, our fear is reserved for God alone. Fear of anything else is assigning God’s due to an unworthy thing. Essentially, it is idolatry.
How then do we relate to God? Does this fear include terror? Absolutely not, Hebrews 10:19 says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.” Indeed, God is worthy of our trembling; no man can see Him and live. However, because God so loved us, He sent Jesus and belief in Christ’s atoning death transforms our rightful fear into privileged amazement.

Abby Kelly’s new Bible study, Beyond Belief: Jesus Saved You, Now What? will be released in June of 2015.

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