That Christian Next Door

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, at least so felt one of the wisest men who ever lived, King Solomon, chief writer of the Bible book of Proverbs. In Proverbs 14 vs 26 from the Message translation, the Bible says: “The Fear-of-God builds up confidence, and makes a world safe for your children. In Psalm 20 vs 7 – 8, King David of Israel pondered: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They will collapse and fall but we shall rise and stand upright.”

Christians take the Bible seriously. More specifically, they take God’s word seriously. Be it God’s directly spoken words or those that come from a mouthpiece He has chosen. One thing is sure, taking God’s word seriously is a non-negotiable Christian hallmark.

This is important to mention because when as humans there is a lack of relationship with God, which would be evident when everything or almost everything in our lives is done without consideration of God or any expectations that He may have, there is expectedly then a lack of appreciation for who God is which would certainly mean there is lack of this so-called “fear of God” referenced above.

This “fear” is not to be understood based on our earthly experience of fear. It is instead a holy and reverential fear that acknowledges God’s immense greatness and our smallness in the face of it all. This smallness doesn’t mean that we look down on ourselves though. It actually means that we can go about life being supremely confident because we have the Creator of everything on our side, protecting our backs. But first we have to have the Creator of everything on our side.

A big part of Christianity is about mindsets and, as Christians, the mindset should always be of a willingness to serve God with humility and to let it all go for Him who created heaven and earth. This mindset, as 1 John 5 vs 14 describes, leads to “the boldness we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

Where there is separation from God and in the absence of connection with God and a clear belief-based and action-led relationship with Him, there is certainly no fear of God and our human confidence about anything is built on sinking sand. The benefit of God’s love, of knowing Him and of being connected to Him is that we have boldness and assurance in each moment that everything (our worst regrets and biggest disappointments, included) will work out for good (see Romans 8 vs 28). This is a massive difference between a Christian who is well-connected to the Father and a Christian who is poorly-connected or a non-Christian with no connection whatsoever.

There is perhaps nothing worse in life that being bereft of confidence, of hope for the future and of a God-given understanding of the purpose and meaning of one’s life. But perhaps, a worse scenario is when we are already working in the specific plan that God has for our lives but remain doomed to gain nothing at the end of it all. Separation from the creator and giver of life leads to this. Separation from God perpetuates these awful scenarios. The best Christian advice to a non-Christian is to remove the separators that exist between yourself and God. God wants you and wants you to want Him also.

Going solely based on God’s inspired words in the Bible: no matter how rich or poor, or influential or unknown, or imaginative or unimaginative or knowledgeable or stupid any person is and how much or how little they may or may not have changed the earthly world we live in, the absence of an active, belief-based and action-led relationship with God will only result in a severely limited life that will be deemed a failure by God because it was unable to achieve it’s creator’s simplest intention for unbreakable connection.