My message this morning at Christ Church had a missing point! I skipped #5 in the first half of the message, types of relationships with God:
1. Fire Insurance
2. Religious
3. Part-time God
4. Fan
5……????
“Fearful.”
A relationship with God that is accentuated with fear. This is not the healthy “fear” mentioned in verses like:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 9:10a (NRSV)
The word “fear” is the Hebrew, yirah, which means to reverence, respect, hold in awe, to honor. It does not mean to be afraid, yet it is just that kind of fear, the afraid kind, that dominates some people’s relationship with God. God desires and deserves to be respected and honored, he is the God that created all there is. He is the Almighty, All-Holy, Everlasting God. However, to live in fear of God is not the relationship he desires with us.
Some people fear God because they think he is angry at them for the bad things they have done. They falsely believe that God is just sitting around waiting for them to mess up so he can punish them and make their lives miserable. While God does take sin very seriously, his solution to our sin was sacrificing Jesus on the cross. His love reaches beyond our sin. This is grace.
I ought to hold God in the highest possible regard and worship him as God, but to constantly be afraid of God is not what he intends for us. He intends a personal, loving, daily relationship in which our character is formed into his image and through which he can not only bless us, but bless the world through us.
So, that’s what you missed. If you missed the whole thing, you can go here (although it won’t be up on the website until Wednesday). Also, you can join us at Christ Church for the rest of this new series of messages, Life Preservers: 10 Commandments for Life.
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