Running to Him … Not from Him: Godly Fear
by Jill Austin
Exodus 14:31 - And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in Him and in Moses, his servant.
Fear, or reverential awe of the Lord, should help us run to God rather than from God. Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai is an awesome example of how encountering God causes reverence and elation, rather than fear and spiritual boredom.
Moses ascended the great mountain of the Lord, shielded from the glare of life’s non-essentials. This was the place where God is all that exists and all that matters. After the lightning and the rumblings on Mount Sinai, Moses returned and told the people something interesting. He said, “God has come to place His fear in you so that you might not sin.”
Godly fear is a reverential awe. It is being forced to one’s knees, more than choosing to go to one’s knees. It can only be realized with an encounter with another-world, extra-dimensional, supernatural reality. And in that place of realization, it empowers our hearts to not settle on the lesser loves of this world.
We find casual, routine religion to be convenient. We find it to be pleasant. But this kind of religion fails to provide the average American parishioner, week in and week out, with the kind of spine-tingling, seat of the pants, edge of the seat environment that delivers us from lesser distractions. I don’t want to go to church when I can predict every moment of the service. God is radical and unpredictable. He wants to bring in the suddenly of His personality. He wants to be able to model church after a Moses’ encounter on Mount Sinai.
When Moses went up onto Mount Sinai, he didn’t think that he was going to have forty minutes of worship, then some announcements, and then the message, etc. When God is in the house, nothing is predictable! If His presence is there, you are on the edge of your seat and you forget your watch. You don’t know how much time has passed. God is there and that is all that matters.
We must have more of You!
Prayer: Lord, I want to have a holy fear of Your awesomeness! Help me to climb the mountain, to encounter You, and not to settle for anything less than YOU alone. We welcome you back to our churches to ruin us for the ordinary. We must have Your presence or we will become dull and barren!
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