2nd January, 2008

LLOYD HARKNESS

How do you love someone and fear them? How can love and fear blend in one person so that their relationship with God is healthy?

The fear of God is an issue which addresses who we are to be and who God is. On the one hand we are to “love the Lord our God with all our heart...” but in tension with that heart response is the instruction to “fear God”.

AN EMBRACIVE FEAR: Lloyd Harkness says that the fear of God is not an "I-want-to-escape" fear but a fear that "binds us to God in love". PICTURE: Charlie Balch (www.sxc.hu) "(T)he holy fear the Bible speaks of is embracive. This fear is about fearing the loss of His presence in our lives, about moving towards God because His very word is life and strength and health to our being while to move away from Him would be the antithesis of all that our heart yearns for. This fear binds us to God in love."

Should there be tension in our relationship with God? Hardly! The kind of tension I am referring to here is not the hallmark of a healthy relationship. So how can love and fear together bring us closer to God?

Firstly, we need to establish what the fear of God is. Our initial feeling might be that fear distances a person on a relational level that it is the antithesis of intimacy and wholeness and connection. Clearly, the Bible speaks of a holy fear which draws us to God, not a fear that pushes us away from him.

This fear has nothing to do with being afraid in the sense of trying to run and hide from God. That type of fear might be the first response of a sinner caught out, of an Adam and Eve exposed before God. Guilt and shame quickly morph into fear in a caught-out situation.

Or...

To look at the I-want-to-escape-fear from another angle is to imply God is tyrannical and unbalanced, that He is someone of whom you can never be sure when His next outburst is going to hit you.

Yet...God is love.

And because God is love, then the holy fear the Bible speaks of is embracive. This fear is about fearing the loss of His presence in our lives, about moving towards God because His very word is life and strength and health to our being while to move away from Him would be the antithesis of all that our heart yearns for. This fear binds us to God in love.

The fear of God, to create our own mini thesaurus, is about awe, reverence, honour, respect, esteem and a gob-smacked wonder which compels us to obey His every command. With that sort of understanding, there is no human relationship with which we can draw an effective analogy to illuminate a healthy fear and love.

But fear and love do merge at the point when stillness comes over our spirit in the presence of God. It might be in a service, the prayer closet or some other situation where God’s presence descends on you like a Mount Transfiguration experience. Then, that whole mini thesaurus explanation begins to explain what is happening on the most intimate of levels.

God is good.

Whatever God draws our attention to to do elicits a response of “Yes, Lord” because He is God and His character is unsurpassingly good. Whatever He directs us to do, we can be assured it is not only for His eternal purposes but for our eternal good.

This fear is a fear of missing out, of missing the mark, of falling short, of not being connected to “the good works He has prepared for us in advance to do”; works which have an eternal value and consequence. And to keep us engaged and connected to Him, His grace is manifest when we stuff up or miss the mark.

In this context the proverb “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” makes sense. Wisdom is the application of Godly knowledge. It is about following God’s timetable in our decision-making and following through on Godly choices about whom we marry, how we conduct our business and the character we exhibit in community. This fear prompts Godly decisions which keep us connected to God and His kingdom building.

Where there is a holy fear, there is no room for being blasé or casual or taking God for granted. We are compelled and impelled not to depart from Him. Hence religiosity, a poor man’s substitute for reverence, honour and awe of God, is quickly dismissed. Having tasted it, you hunger for more of the real thing.

There might be a temptation to drift due to the cares of the world, the pride of life and the lust of the eyes trying to choke the good seed sown in our lives but if the fear of God has taken root it will bring us back to a place of awe inspired obedience. God’s holy fear keeps us humble and sober, clean and free.

He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. In recognition of this, Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, challenges us to work out our salvation in fear.

Our salvation is an on-going cultivated walk woven through the days we are given. In order to get to the finishing line we have to walk it out in “fear and trembling”.

That fear is, once again, a reverent, sensitive, energising flow from God. It helps us be alert to temptation, sharpen our conscience and shrink from things offensive to God.

The fear of God gives us strength to go on in His love. It energises us to not fall short of the good He would have us do. The love of God keeps legalism at bay and together, love and fear, fuel an intimacy which will carry us beyond the veil of death.

This fear sits comfortably beside love creating no mixed messages. It makes sense of Isaiah’s prophetic proclamation in 11:4 about Jesus as one who would “delight in the fear of the Lord”. Jesus’ pleasure was to do what pleased His Father and He never deviated from that ‘delight’.

To fear God is to delight in Him and do what pleases Him.

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