Faith and Fear
Faith and fear grow together, both build in strength as our personal history is written...both reinforce themselves when practiced. Strength to strength...faith to faith...fear to fear.
Usually faith has a positive connotation associated with it and fear a negative, but each is defined by what it is attached to: is my faith in God, or people, or luck, or me? Is my fear of circumstance, or people, or the odds, or God? The true answers to these questions will shape my entire life.
I heard a preacher say once that faith and fear are both spiritual connectors. I have found this is true. Faith and fear both connect me to whatever they are "in."
Faith in God draws me into choices that put the outcome squarely on God's shoulders. These look like risky choices to the rest of the world, but if I have a personal history of seeing God break in, not choosing to let my future rest on Him is a much bigger risk!
Fear of God, or making His opinion the one that matters most, draws me into choices that honor Him, that obey Him...even to do crazy things like seeking His kingdom first and letting the rest...food, clothing, shelter, purpose, meaning, vision, success... be simply "added" unto me. The Bible says the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
I want to fear God more than I fear anything else, because this is what will cause my life to agree with His vision of my life. The most important opinion becomes most important when I fear the Lord. Fearing the most loving, kind, generous, and powerful being ever is a good thing to fear....He is a safe place to put my fear.
Fearing other things elevates them over God. Fearing failure elevates it over God. Fearing lack elevates it over God. Fearing what might happen to my reputation elevates it over God.
This wrongly placed fear is very unsafe, because on one day, only one opinion is going to matter! All fear but the fear of the Lord drives me to make choices with wrongly placed faith: faith in odds, faith in other people and what they can do for me, faith in myself
and my limited and incomplete knowledge...
Faith and fear are each a choice. If I fear, and put faith in, God, I choose to put God in charge of the outcome, and my history of seeing God break in continues to build. I have a personal history of seeing God move in my life, and faith builds...more and more knowledge and tangible experience of what He is like and how He moves in my life.
If I give in to the fear of any lesser thing, I might actually experience some of the same events in my life, but my view of them is different, because fear of anything less than God puts that thing in charge of my future. It takes the place of God as what I am walking toward. Am I able to avoid disaster? This is now the question. My memory of events and outcomes becomes entirely different: narrow escapes, recalculating the nuances of choices, barely surviving...fear of anything less than God puts a lot on the shoulders of a man, it is a heavy burden and an unmerciful yoke.
I go where I am looking. If I choose faith in God, faith in God builds...strength to strength. If I look to fear of anything less than God, fear builds a stronghold in my life...strength to strength. Each offers a home for my heart: fear of God, or fear of what everyone else fears. Faith in God or faith in what everyone else has faith in.
Blessed is the man who dwells in the house of the Lord, the household of faith and fear in God, who is the Master of the house of the Lord. This is the house the sparrows and the butterflies, and the deer live in. Each one eats daily, and finds water. Each one learns to live in all sorts of conditions, and to raise their young to know the same ways they know. Even the sparrow has found a place in the house of the lord, the household of faith.
But man is tempted to think of himself as more responsible than the sparrow. Without faith in, and fear of, God, man is forced to live in his own house. Without the risk of faith, the beguiling comfort, the logic, and the wisdom of man is the master of the household. The man who dwells in his own house certainly lives in the house of fear, but a much less safe fear than the fear of the Lord, because "what might happen" rules the roost. Careful planning and responsibility...avoiding potential pitfalls...this is the alternative to the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord, desiring to live in His house, is a pilgrimage, a spectacular journey full of risk, and faith, and well-placed fear:
Psalm 84:1 How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young— Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will still be praising You. Selah 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. 8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 9 O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed. 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!
Usually faith has a positive connotation associated with it and fear a negative, but each is defined by what it is attached to: is my faith in God, or people, or luck, or me? Is my fear of circumstance, or people, or the odds, or God? The true answers to these questions will shape my entire life.
I heard a preacher say once that faith and fear are both spiritual connectors. I have found this is true. Faith and fear both connect me to whatever they are "in."
Faith in God draws me into choices that put the outcome squarely on God's shoulders. These look like risky choices to the rest of the world, but if I have a personal history of seeing God break in, not choosing to let my future rest on Him is a much bigger risk!
Fear of God, or making His opinion the one that matters most, draws me into choices that honor Him, that obey Him...even to do crazy things like seeking His kingdom first and letting the rest...food, clothing, shelter, purpose, meaning, vision, success... be simply "added" unto me. The Bible says the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
I want to fear God more than I fear anything else, because this is what will cause my life to agree with His vision of my life. The most important opinion becomes most important when I fear the Lord. Fearing the most loving, kind, generous, and powerful being ever is a good thing to fear....He is a safe place to put my fear.
Fearing other things elevates them over God. Fearing failure elevates it over God. Fearing lack elevates it over God. Fearing what might happen to my reputation elevates it over God.
This wrongly placed fear is very unsafe, because on one day, only one opinion is going to matter! All fear but the fear of the Lord drives me to make choices with wrongly placed faith: faith in odds, faith in other people and what they can do for me, faith in myself
and my limited and incomplete knowledge...
Faith and fear are each a choice. If I fear, and put faith in, God, I choose to put God in charge of the outcome, and my history of seeing God break in continues to build. I have a personal history of seeing God move in my life, and faith builds...more and more knowledge and tangible experience of what He is like and how He moves in my life.
If I give in to the fear of any lesser thing, I might actually experience some of the same events in my life, but my view of them is different, because fear of anything less than God puts that thing in charge of my future. It takes the place of God as what I am walking toward. Am I able to avoid disaster? This is now the question. My memory of events and outcomes becomes entirely different: narrow escapes, recalculating the nuances of choices, barely surviving...fear of anything less than God puts a lot on the shoulders of a man, it is a heavy burden and an unmerciful yoke.
I go where I am looking. If I choose faith in God, faith in God builds...strength to strength. If I look to fear of anything less than God, fear builds a stronghold in my life...strength to strength. Each offers a home for my heart: fear of God, or fear of what everyone else fears. Faith in God or faith in what everyone else has faith in.
Blessed is the man who dwells in the house of the Lord, the household of faith and fear in God, who is the Master of the house of the Lord. This is the house the sparrows and the butterflies, and the deer live in. Each one eats daily, and finds water. Each one learns to live in all sorts of conditions, and to raise their young to know the same ways they know. Even the sparrow has found a place in the house of the lord, the household of faith.
But man is tempted to think of himself as more responsible than the sparrow. Without faith in, and fear of, God, man is forced to live in his own house. Without the risk of faith, the beguiling comfort, the logic, and the wisdom of man is the master of the household. The man who dwells in his own house certainly lives in the house of fear, but a much less safe fear than the fear of the Lord, because "what might happen" rules the roost. Careful planning and responsibility...avoiding potential pitfalls...this is the alternative to the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord, desiring to live in His house, is a pilgrimage, a spectacular journey full of risk, and faith, and well-placed fear:
Psalm 84:1 How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young— Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will still be praising You. Selah 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. 8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 9 O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed. 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!
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