Fearing the Wrong Thing

This morning I was running my normal route down Bison Road.  I think the city widened that road just for me.  The shoulders are great and the fresh asphalt is free from obstacles. The weather was absolutely perfect and the sunrise was as gorgeous as usual.  As I was enjoying my run I heard something next to me and as I looked over something was coming quickly out of the culvert.  As my pace quickened and my heart raced a small, well-groomed dog comes shooting out of the culvert running for his life.  He barks at me and quickly puts his tail between his legs and runs to the front of a nearby home.  I am not sure who was scared more, me or the dog.

There are times in life that we fear the wrong things.  We fear death.  We fear disease.  We fear loss.  We fear financial problems.  We fear for our kids’ future.  We fear heights.  We fear falling.  To fear those things is like fearing a little dog that is more scared of you than you are of him.  Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

We need to learn to only fear God.  Not in such a way that we coward from him but in such a way that we fall at his feet in submission.  Jesus said, “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.  Yes, I tell you, Fear him!” (Luke 12:5).  We learn in Proverbs that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10).  When we have the proper fear of God we will be wise in our decisions.  We will understand what and who should be feared.  When we submit to God as our omnipotent ruler we will learn to not live in fear of things that are temporal.  We will have the confidence of Paul when he asked, “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?”