Discipleship Against FearIhe Atụ

While fear is not the only factor that guides our decisions, it is a significant one. We don’t like to be vulnerable or out of control. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we are often just that: vulnerable and out of control. Yet, discipleship stands against fear.

Trying to manage our fears as we encounter the uncertain situations that arise during our daily lives can prompt us to walk less by faith and more by sight. Our fears overshadow our deeply held convictions that (1) God is sovereign, wise, and benevolent, and (2) God has given us his word as a guide to allow us to walk wisely in a broken world. God did not step away from us after creating the world but intervened to show us how to live with him as he continues to rule all creation.

“The fear of the Lord” means that we recognize the Lord’s position as a Sovereign who promises life to those who obey his teaching and death to those who refuse to follow him. Wisdom comes in understanding that the Lord “is your life and length of days” (Deut 30:20). To put it differently, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because without fearing the Lord, we can never fully comprehend how to live in his presence.

Fearing the Lord does not mean we cower before him but that we perceive God as both ever-present and infinitely relevant. To fear the Lord is to grant Him the respect He deserves, not in the abstract sense but within the concrete realities of daily life. We respect God, in other words, not by ignoring the various trials and troubles of life but by allowing God to overshadow and condition our response to the challenges of life. We fear Him infinitely more than we fear them. The more we see God as capable of doing more than we can ask or think in the midst of trial, the more we will begin to walk according to His full counsel.

As our fear of God grows, we recognize that the strategies, nudges, and seeming inevitabilities of life do not determine our path. Wisdom does. We obey God regardless of the circumstances we face because, in doing so, we demonstrate our fear of the Lord. We give God His due respect trusting that He is present, active, and tirelessly working for our good.