Fear and Peace and Comfort
Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. (ESV)
We live in tumultuous times. You pick up a newspaper and people in authority, not always but often, are behaving badly. Churches are spectacularly riddled with financial scandals and much worse. What’s going on?
Look, I don’t know if you’re a churchgoer or not, but humour me. The church, Christians … they ain’t perfect. In fact, they never have been … right back to the 1st century and the stern letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to wayward and ill-disciplined churches.
That’s tragic, because of all the institutions, of all the people on the planet, it ought not to be so, wouldn’t you agree?
How do you deal with that? How do you go about setting it right – as it should be? The early church suffered heavy persecution as it is again increasingly today. But have a go at this:
Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. (ESV)
To fear God doesn’t mean to be afraid of Him, it means to respect Him, to honour Him, to obey Him. Granted, to an outsider, some of the things Christians believe seem whacky. But wherever you stand, this one thing is certain: when God’s people honour Him, instead of playing at religion, good things, really good things, happen.
And even though they don’t make the press, there’s a lot of that going round. That’s what happens when God’s people walk in the fear of the Lord.
And that’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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