What drives you?

Psalm 25: 14 “the Lord confides in those who fear Him, He makes His secrets known to them.”

What does it mean to have Fear of the Lord? This passage tells us that the Lord shared His secrets with those who fear him.

The truth is, whatever it is that you fear the most will dictate how you will live your life.

I’d like to give you an example from an illustration I once heard. What if you were lost out in the middle of the ocean without a life jacket? Your chief fear is drowning. So that fear dictates how you live your life. You do everything in your power to stay afloat. Now suppose with me that just a week ago you had been watching the Discovery Channel and they had a special about this 18 inch marine cockroach that swam in the ocean and ate people’s faces (of course there is really no such animal). If you saw this creature swimming toward you then your chief fear would go from drowning to being eaten by a cockroach. You would now have a new fear to dictate your living. What if in the midst of all of this you heard that eerie music and a dorsal fin of a 24 foot great white shark pierced the surface of the water. Suddenly drowning and being eaten by a cockroach have taken backseats to being mauled by this massive shark. Now here you have an even greater fear that will dictate how you live your life.

So then I contend that as long as our greatest fear is how we will meet the bills next month or when we will be married, or if we have enough groceries for tomorrow, or if we are popular, or how we look, or when the next time I can participate in my hobby is, then those things will dictate how we live our lives. It is not until our chief fear is the Fear of the LORD that we will live our lives fully for God.

Some people think that to fear God simply means to respect Him but it is clear through scripture that this idea of respecting God undermines the true meaning and depth of what it means to fear God.

Consider Exodus 20:18-21 18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."
20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."
21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
The people believe that if they go near the mountain of God they will die, this is not simply respect. It is rather a Holy Fear.

This is much the same in our spiritual life. So often we are content to just respect God. Just like a mosquito bite, we may have signs that show we have encountered God, but we really very seldom fear God anymore. Every time someone in the Bible saw God their response was fear that they might die. If not that then at least they fell down in worship of Mighty God. This is the God we are to fear. And we must fear Him if we expect Him to share with us His secrets, His very covenants.

Isaiah 33: 6 speaks of the fear of the Lord being a treasure, 6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure. [a]
In Matthew 6:21 Jesus says that where your treasure is there your heart will be also. So you see that the thing you fear the most will dictate how you live your life. If God is what you fear most, then your life’s service will reflect that.
Don’t think that I am saying we must remain petrified by the thought of God. Rather, as we learn to Fear God we will be driven to Him. He will be our treasure and our very great reward. Our Holy Fear of God brings us so relationally close to God that we are enveloped by Him. Not unlike the family dog that is attracted to, and seeks the affection of the “alpha” person in the household.

What does it look like to fear the LORD? I came across this cool acronym to remind us. If you can remember this acronym I believe you can remember what it means to fear God. S.O.A.P.= STUDY OBSERVE and PRAISE.
1. STUDY:
Deuteronomy 17:18-20 18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.


2. OBSERVE:
Deuteronomy 31:12,13 “assemble the people… that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law.”
3. PRAISE:
Psalm 22:23 23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
Psalm 118:4 4 Let those who fear the LORD say:
"His love endures forever."
Psalm 135:20 20 O house of Levi, praise the LORD;
you who fear him, praise the LORD.

This is a perpetual motion, a circular pattern for if you come through step three you will find yourself again at step one.
STUDY-> OBSERVE-> PRAISE-> STUDY-> OBSERVE-> PRAISE-> STUDY

Old Testament, New Testament, it does not matter! As you study the things of God you realize His promises and His commands, thus you are compelled by the Spirit to put these things that you have learned into practice. As you observe these things of God you see Him as faithful to His word and always a true and righteous God, thus prompting your praise of Him. As you praise God you enter into a deeper relationship with Him and find yourself desiring more of Him thus thrusting yourself into a more arduous pursuit of Him in your study and so the cycle goes on and on.