Fear Him

Jonah 1.11-17

Reference: v.16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. (NIV Bible)

Explore: “Jesus is my boyfriend.” There is a bit of talk around at the moment about songs of worship and praise being love songs to God. Some of them sound like the love songs you hear on the radio just with the word ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ thrown in. I go back and forth a bit on this issue. I believe we should love God more than anything or anyone in our lives. God has given us everything and continues to pour out His love and grace on us, how can we not sing love songs to Him? I do believe, however, that there is a balance. If we only sing songs that make God our boyfriend then we are bringing Him down to our level. He is more powerful, more intense, more indescribable than any of the people we can love. The greatest issue in making God our boyfriend is that we lose the fear of our God. Not the fear that He is so powerful that we should run away from Him, but a healthy fear that makes us realise that He is the ultimate power in the universe. God is a gracious god but He is also a jealous, powerful god and we can not forget all the aspects of Him.

Application: The crewmen, on the ship that Jonah was on to run away from God, had a real fear of the powerful god before them. They believed in other gods and would call out to them, however they had not been able to change their stormy situation. When they realised the storm was created by the god that Jonah worshipped they were respectful and feared Him. Even before the storm had calmed down by throwing Jonah into the water they asked for mercy from this powerful god.
Do we show God the respect and fear that He is due? It’s challenging because He can be incredibly close to us and speak to us in the whisper of a moment but we must also remember that He is the powerful God who flooded the whole earth, He separated the Red Sea, and He calmed the storms. We worship a powerful, mighty God. As we love and adore Him, let us not forget His power and authority.

Prayer: Lord of all creation, we marvel at your power and strength as well as your grace and mercy. Amen.