2.6 Seeking God – Leads to Deliverance from Fear

• Well the first one says fears. 
• Let’s think of what fears God saves us from:
  •  Change: Fear can cause you to miss out on good opportunities that can come your way. Running the risk of not going forward and staying behind in a rut when you avoid change. Stop doing the bad things (sin) might open up God’s blessing in your life living righteously. (1 Tim 4:8)
  • Loneliness: It can cause people to avoid living alone causing you to settle for second best and stay in bad relationships. It is very important to connect with healthy people allowing good social interactions. Being part of God’s kingdom allows you to build godly relationship that will protect you from choosing the wrong person based on the wrong principles ending up in loneliness and divorce. Seeking God’s kingdom first have the effect that God will give you the right person in the end. (Mat 6:33)
  • Failure: The embarrassedment to fail reinforces your beliefs that you are not good enough. and. don’t measure up. Living a risk averse life you’ll miss out on life and opportunities that might help you find success and grow. If your faith is in God and you have the right spiritual people in your life to guide you into making better discisions your rate of failure will decline because like the Bible says: “Many advisors makes victory sure.” (Pr 11:14)
  • Rejection: It can keep you stuck, also keep people from avoiding meeting new people or seeking new relationships. Does your spouse knows your deepest desires and you are keeping it from him because he / her might say no? “It is better to regret what you have done than what you haven’t.” – Paul Arden. While rejection stings, it doesn’t hurt as much as a missed opportunity. Obviously it is always better to ask advice on things that you want to do so that someone can watch your back. It stops you from asking an attractive person on a date or your boss for a raise. 
  • Uncertainty: Staying the same is one sure way of not growing; whether you’re afraid to apply for a new job opening or afraid to move to a new city where the new job opening is. There is no guarantees that something new will make your life better, but if you do not even try you will never know. 
  • Something Bad happening: Being pessimistic about life is cripling because if you commit it to prayer before the Lord and check out the pro’s and con’s it might just free up your life. Life is not a fairy tale all the time, bad things will happen because we live in a sinful world. 
  • Getting Hurt: The fears of getting hurt cause us to emotionally overprotective of ourselves and our kids robbing us to enjoy life and the freedom of it, not putting yourself in voluntary idolation like in a prison. The fear of getting hurt makes you vulnerable and insecure attracting the wrong attention of predators who pick up on it. We should put our trust in God that He will protect us. 
  • Being Judged: The fear of failure and rejection leads to the fear of being judged and not measuring up or liked or being yourself but wearing a mask all the time to please other people. If we live according to Gods rules and values it does not matter if other people judge or think about us because we live a full and righteous life before God. 
  • Inadequacy: The fear of being good enough is again your focus not on God but on people. Peer pressure can make you do foolish things to be accepted by the “cool” crowd who use it to make a fool out of you and having a good laugh at your expense. Your identity and confidence should come from God who created you worthy of His love and affection. It might drive you to become an perfectionist separating you more from people because you think you are better than them. 
  • Loss of Freedom: It can becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you are a rebel with a cause it has it’s bad consequences. You being your own man can make you to loose your job and being vulnerable to accept a job that puts you back in exactly the same situation making you free but financially not stable which in effect make you loose certain freedoms. 

• “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
      but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”- Pr 1:7
  • We do not fear anything else accept God. If we get to know Him we will be wise and knowledgable. 
• “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
      and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” – Pr 9:10
  • If we fear God we will gain understanding.
• “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
      turning a person from the snares of death.”
  • When I fear God that is when my real eternal life begins, because it is the fountain of life. It protects me from death. 
• “To fear the Lord is to hate evil;
      I hate pride and arrogance,
      evil behavior and perverse speech.”- Pr 8:13
  • So the next step after fearing God is that we get to know Him, when we get to know Him we will know what is evil and need to hate it.
• “Better a little with the fear of the Lord
      than great wealth with turmoil.”
  • The one who fears God knows to have little is better than having much.
  • Having much brings turmoil. 
• “The fear of the Lord leads to life;
      then one rests content, untouched by trouble.” – Pr 19:23
  • When I fear God, my life leads to rest content.
  • I am untouched by trouble because I trust God. 
• “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Mat 10:28
  • Here God commands us not to be fearful of men.
• “And he said to man,
  ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
      and to depart from evil is understanding.’” – Job 28:28
  • When we fear God we become wise and then we gain understanding we will depart from evil. 
• “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:” – Ex 18:21
  • Here are some characteristics of someone who fears God:
    • They are able men.
    • They hate unjust gain.
    • They are men of truth.
    • They are leaders of God’s people. 

• “And your life will be brighter than the noonday;
      its darkness will be like the morning.” – Job 11:17
• “Who is like the wise man?

And who knows the interpretation of a thing?