Daily Devotional: 4/28/2018

"Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." Proverbs 29:25

In today’s day and age we grow up fearing so much. We grow up naturally fearing the dark, monsters under the bed or in the closet., we fear big animals that have the potential to eat us like bears and sharks, and ghosts. We are even sometimes taught to fear things. Growing up our parents and teachers embedded it into our heads “stranger danger.” In this sense we were suppose to and we did fear strangers. They told us that if any one other than someone we knew offered us candy and needed help looking not for their puppy do not fall for it, all they wanted to do was hurt us. This put the fear in us to not trust white vans. We are humans fear so much, so much that we should not have to worry about on a daily basis. It is just natural to us, i do it myself, I worry and fear the little things. People have small fears to big fears, from the fear of not being on time to the fear of not having enough time, to constant fear of death (yes it can be that drastic, that 0-100. Another thing that we fear both nature and nurture, is our parents. We naturally fear them because we do not want to disappoint them. In my generation, they were able to hit us if we acted up (people are getting soft and calling the little of things child abuse). But we feared that if we ever got caught doing wrongs he amount of trouble we would get into. But this fear is not a fear for our lives (well if it is I pray for you), this is a trusting fear. This is a fear that comes out of love. This is the same way we should fear God. We should fear disappointing God so much that we would want to do better in life. We should fear that if we mess up we are going to punish us for it. When studying the Bible there was a commentary that simply put, “fear of God = trust in God.” God loves us unconditionally, he wants nothing but the best for us. And if that means smacking us around a little bit he will. The same way a parent disciplines a child for doing wrong, God does the same. Sometimes this is the only way we learn, with a little slap on the wrist. “Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in” (Prov. 3:12). “Whoever needs discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads other astray” (Prov. 10:17). There is so many other things the Bible says about discipline (Prov. 5:12, 12:1; Job 5:17; Deut. 8:5). The only thing that we should fear in our life is God. It should not be a fear that leads you to be scared of God, but a fear that makes you trust in him. Fear him the same way you fear a parent, because he is our Heavenly Father. He is the one that created us. We all have fears like I said in the beginning, for me I am extremely terrified of snakes, for many reasons, but that fear is nothing compared to my fear for our Lord. I never want to disappoint him. I want to be able to follow his laws and decrees the best way i can. The apostles this all the time, Paul and Peter two of the greatest messed up all the time, but they feared the Lord because they trusted him. Read the Gospels and the Letters and see how they lived their life and feared the Lord. 

Lord, thank you for all you do. Thank you for being our Heavenly Father. Thank you for all you do for us. Thank you for your constant protection, for always being their for us. Thank you for disciplining us sternly, but lovingly. You love us unconditionally no matter how much we sin and mess up. Help us continue to grow in our trust in you and our growth and knowledge in you. In Jesus’s name, Amen. 

#LetsBeAMovement