Recovery Devotional 293 Fear of God

JMD Devotional 293 2 Kings 1:11-13 Fear of God

Again King [Ahaziah] sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he said to Elijah, Man of God, the king has said, Come down quickly! And Elijah answered, If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. Ahaziah sent again a captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and fell on his knees before Elijah and besought him and said to him, O man of God, I pray you, let my life and the lives of these fifty, your servants, be precious in your sight.

Even secular insurance policies have an ‘Act of God’ clause, showing some respect to the Almighty. A few years ago, a question popped into my head, “What is Holy”, and “What does Holy mean?” I could only come up with things related to holiness, synonyms and godly attributes, but not a proper definition. But knowing that my dull wits rarely come up with such good questions on their own without outside inspiration, I clung to the question. I reread Jerry Bridges, “The Pursuit of Holiness”, then exposed myself to R.C. Sproul’s, “The Holiness of God.” Short of saying what holiness is, I will say what it does: it strikes terror in the heart of man. When we become comfortable with God, it is because we have insulated ourselves with the god of our own imagination. We have taken the teeth out of Aslan; and the Great and Terrible God of the scriptures has become less than holy, perhaps a doddering old grandfather in our minds. If God isn’t challenging you, if you are completely comfortable in His presence, test yourself and make sure that you have not contented yourself with a mere image of God in your mind, a shadow of a graven image, definable, under your control, predictable, of your own invention.

Dear God,

Why is it so easy to attribute every pleasant thing to Your creation; but not sharks, flesh-eating bacteria and vicious raptors? Every day giant squids are engaged in mortal combat with great whales at depths no man can endure save a heavily armored sphere. The mental image I had of You that I have carried from kindergarten, and have touched up again and again through adolescence is still just a representation, a child’s scribble, less than real, not true to life. Show me Your glory, God. Confound my attempts at idolatry; be jealous and trash the imposters that intersect the worship that You alone are worthy of. If it takes making me uncomfortable, do what you must to wake me up and restore genuine reverence and a purging fear and a refreshing awe and an authentic relationship with You. There is one God. Thank You that Christ represents peace with God and access to Your presence.

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

I originally produced these blogs between 2006 and 2007, which were then published in my book, JMD Recovery Devotionals. In 2010, I am sending these out to a few people as I review them and see if my point of view has changed.

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