The Gift of Godly Fear

# 148 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 11:8 When he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And they said to the messengers who came, "Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have help.'" Then the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. 10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, "Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do with us whatever seems good to you." (1 Sam 11:8-10) 330,000 men responded to the call to defend their brethren. One moment they were weeping to the heavens in fear and the next day they are mustered for fighting the enemy. One moment fearing man, the next fearing no one, not even that snake Nahash the Ammonite. It was the fear of the Lord that came over each individual and caused them to rise above their circumstances. Now the fear of the Lord is often misunderstood by Christians. It can mean a kind of reverential awe, which is birthed in the realization of how much God loves you, but it also can be an alarming kind of fear, a knee-shaking, voice quivering fear of God. We don't like to think about this latter kind of fear because we have manufactured an incomplete picture of who God is. We want a God of comfort not of alarm. Yet it was this kind of fear, an alarming kind of fear that gripped these men of Israel, and caused them to rise above their circumstances. It was at this moment that God caused them to be more alarmed of Him, than of their enemy. As much as we don't like this kind of fear, we often need it to spur us on in our particular circumstances. Perhaps you've experienced this kind of fear at a time when you needed to speak up to an issue, or when you needed to act on behalf of some injustice. It was this kind of fear that moved you to action! It would be great if we could bottle such fear and use it whenever we needed it, but the truth is, godly fear is a gift from God whether it be reverential or alarming. Pray for it on a daily basis....you never know when you will need it to rise above your circumstances.