It's all started with the fear of the Lord

Just something that came up to me recently about the word 'fear'. Sometime we afraid to stand up and say the correct things because our fear of being rejected/unaccepted. In the other word, we fear human beings... I'm not talking about crazy shooter that just barge in and start shooting people..that's different.

But, fear is pretty uncommon these days, because generally we don't fear anything, everything is okay and we can do everything as long as we believe.. so no need to fear anything.. we do self-talk, we convince our reality is otherwise, and we amuse ourselves with what we did..

But the word fear always come again and again repeatedly in the Bible, and it only talks about one thing that we should fear, the Lord your God. 

Proverbs 29:25
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

Ecclesiastes 12:13
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

1 Chronicles 16:25
For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.

Proverbs 1, 9, 10, 14
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge

The fear of the Lord adds length to life
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life

Acts 9:31
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

And then I was thinking, what so important about this? 

Fear is not an option. It's so loving of our God to command us to fear Him.. when we fear Him, we fear Him for the right reason. Because He is worthy and it's our duty. When we know who He is, all-powerful and all-loving God, we live in accordance to His will and His leadership. We submit and trust Him.  And the rest are easy.. we just walk following Jesus and enjoying the moments. 

The dying part is the hard one. To go up in life, the world teach us that it's like a linear line, straight line to the top, a ladder, maybe even lie/cheat here and there.. But in Christ, to go up, you have to go down and die of yourself, and only then Christ can work in you and He will rise you up.

Oh, what joy it is to live for and with God, and like Jesus said on John 15, His joy will be in us, and it will be complete.

Aren't we all looking for that full, complete, perfect joy? Yet we are looking in the wrong direction. 

It's all started with the fear of the Lord