Fear can delay and demobilize one from creative enterprise. It can also obstruct our walk with God. Though God had earlier instructed the widow of Zarephath to sustain Elijah, the woman feared for her survival and that of her son. She complained to Elijah that she was gathering wood to prepare the last meal. Elijah had to cancel her fear by the word of the Lord. We often paint fear in a negative light. However, is there any way by which fear can be put to positive use? Absolutely! When God is made the object of our fear, it becomes positive and rewarding.
The fear of the Lord operates just in the same way as love. We don’t prove our love to anybody by confessing it; it is by refraining from hurting the ones we love and doing something special for them.
The fear of the Lord can be tested in two ways. Firstly, it will manifest itself in abstention from evil. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.” Proverbs 8:13 NKJV. The other side of the coin is that the fear of the Lord compels positive actions. So on the one hand it restrains, and on the other hand it releases one to positive actions. Obadiah demonstrated both. His fear of God withheld him from joining forces with Ahab when he slew the prophets. He also hid 100 of them in two caves and provided sustenance for them. The fear of the Lord operates just in the same way as love. We don’t prove our love to anybody by confessing it; it is by refraining from hurting the ones we love and doing something special for them. If you truly fear the Lord, you will not go about doing things that will grieve His Spirit.
