A Healthy Fear of the Lord and Garage Sales

allie • Apr 18, 2011

I know I know, right now you are probably thinking how in the world is she going to tie these two subjects together…well, I’m not.  I just couldn’t decide which one I wanted to talk about, so thought I’d throw you for a loop and talk a smidgen (is that a word???) on both:)

So, to start with the first, this subject has been on my heart for a long time now.  See, when I first accepted Christ into my heart at the age of 4 it was with blind faith.  That is the beautiful thing of being a child.  No questions asked.  I love Jesus and He loves me!  Then I started growing up and growing in my knowledge of God.  I began to understand what heaven and hell were and realized that I desperately wanted to spend the rest of eternity in heaven with Jesus.  This brought about me asking Jesus into my heart about weekly, afraid that he’d forgotten that I asked 50 times before or something:)  This fear was not a healthy one, but looking back and still not completely understanding a personal one-on-one relationship with Jesus, I understand why I did it:)  Then came high school and college.  I would say that this is the time that I learned about the fear of the Lord but took it too far.  The fear of the Lord was all I could think about, it consumed me.   Sure I knew that Jesus loved me but I kept having thoughts from the enemy coming in and attacking me saying you’re not doing enough, you don’t love Jesus enough.  If you really love Jesus you would be overseas doing missions.  So many more people are doing so much more for him, why would he have time to think about you?  Have you ever had any of these thoughts before??  I just wanted to please God so badly that I completely lost focus of God being a God of love, grace, mercy, comfort.  I had read Proverbs 1:7 which states

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

and that’s when I decided I wanted to KNOW Jesus, not just be afraid of him, cause let’s be honest, that was exhausting.  So I went to a church service one night in college and a man came up to me and said to me, “the Lord wants you to know that He loves you very much!”  I lost it.  Those were the words I longed for, and Jesus used a flesh and soul man to come and tell me…a man that had no clue what I was battling and even who I was.  I have never heard the Lord’s voice audibly, like from the sky:)….but I’ll tell you what, I knew this was the Lord, and it was amazing.

From then on I wanted to find out what the fear of the Lord really was.  I did some researching, praying and reading to find some of these verses that really helped me.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire.”  Hebrews 12:28-29

That’s what the fear of the Lord is….worshipping God with reverence and awe.  I even found this easier to understand once I became a mom.  I realized that I desired my children to listen to me and follow my rules, and in order to teach them to follow them there needed to be discipline and consequences.  The Lord expects the same from us.  He wants us to abide by his law and if not, there will be consequences.  The great thing about Jesus is that he has more grace and mercy than this mom has sometimes:)

“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.” Deuteronomy 10-12 ESV

A healthy fear of the Lord keeps us walking in his ways.  It is what tells us what is right and wrong, and it is what makes us look different from the world almost on a daily basis.  The Lord is our law, and he is so pleased when we follow Him!  So to end this first subject on a great note, read this..

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, * neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

and know that you are loved!!   I pray that if you are dealing with an unhealthy fear like I was, and it is holding you back from a great relatinoship with Jesus, that you would take hold of these verses and truly understand what an amazing God we serve.  A God who loves YOU very much!

And now to bring in the garage sale bit of this blog post..I know you are wondering…I am in full fledged garage sale fever mode.  I see signs and get so excited.  I’ve already scored a couple of great deals and have a really fun one to show you on Wednesday!  So in the season of garage sales, myself and a friend are having one.  A few girls are contributing, and I just put my stuff out and couldn’t believe how many great items (especially women’s and children clothing) there is!  Most all of it is name brand, sizes small to large.  If you are getting the itch you should come check it out.  We will open thursday morning at 8:00 and it is going to be in cokato at 955 Moores Ave. South.  Just a little plug:)  But really, it’s gonna be a good sale:)

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