Saturday: Your Life is Based on Fear

1 Peter 2:17 - Honor everyone. Love brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

     This verse contains something that God laid on my heat earlier this year and I have been very convicted about lately. Fear God. Simple right? Wrong. It's not as easy as I have always thought it to be. I mean most  Christians understand that we are to fear God. Not that we are to be afraid of him as in scared, but in reverence and respect for God's power. You can even looks at it as not sinning out of fear for going against God and knowing there are consequences. I mean some of this I have been very good at. Whenever I liked a girl and especially since I have been dating my girlfriend I have been very careful of what I allow my eyes to see and my mind to think when to movies, internet, tv, whatever. This is because I have always been afraid that if I allow myself to lust then God would take away my girlfriend or even a girl that I had liked at the time. See God has every right to do so if we do not abide by his law. I have recently been exposed to an area of fearing God that I have failed at many times in my past.
     There are times when I fear people instead of God. What I mean is that when the way people see you becomes more important then how God sees you. When you wake up in the morning are you more concerned about living in a way that God will be pleased with or that your friends will be? The way you act, is it based on what others will approve of or based on how the Bible says you should act? I am also talking about trying to impress your Christian friends too! It's not that this is bad in itself especially if you have a good, solid group of friends. It's when it is put ahead of pleasing God then it is wrong. Anything put ahead of God is wrong. So if you are living based on what people think then you are fearing people instead of fearing God.
     Not sure whether or not you fear God or people? Think carefully about the following questions:


Do you care about how others view you? Do you act a certain way because of what people might think? How much do you care about what people think of you? How much of your life is affected by other people? (ask yourself the same questions only replace "people" with "God"


     Who scored higher, God or people? be honest. Now remember it's not wrong to care how others view you. It's when that becomes more important then how much you care about how God views you!


FEAR GOD