Sunday, January 23, 2011

Fear God

"Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God."
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
Recently, I've felt like the Holy Spirit has been pressing on my heart for me to really examine my heart and evaluate what it is that I'm seeking after. What do I desire? What do I long for? Last week at church Mark said, "What you want determines what you will be." What is it that I'm seeking after? Because that is going to determine my character! Am I seeking after God or this world?
Sadly, I would have to say that in the past few months, if I'm being honest with myself, my answer would have to be the world. I don't want to say that after this semester. When Mark made that statement last week it hit me hard. I wrote it down and it's been pressing on my heart ever since then. And then this week he opened with this passage from Ecclesiastes. It's a pretty packed passage and I could probably go on and on about it for a while. But the main things that really stuck out to me were how it talks about fools. There are very specific instructions about how to avoid being a fool...not necesarily easy instructions to follow, but simple ones. 1. Guard your steps. 2. Draw near to listen. 3. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought. 4. Let your words be few. All of these things are difficult to do, but so important and I think they are all things that I need to work on.
One last thing that I've struggled with my whole life is "Fear God."--two little words, but one big struggle! It's so easy for me to fear man, to care about what other people think about me, to want to please people...but why do I choose to care about what people think of me rather than what God thinks of me? God is my Creator. He is my Judge. He is my Savior. He is all-knowing. He is my King. He is my Healer. He is my Fortress. He is my Protection. God loves me more than anyone else possibly could and I am on this earth for His service!! So my perspective should be that nothing else in this earth matters in comparision to Him and what He thinks. But that isn't my perpective. That's not how I look at things. But I'm praying that He will teach me to think and to live in that mindset and not only that, but to believe that it's true!

2 comments:

  1. Katie, I am SO right there with you on this! Every word of it! I love your heart! You are a beautiful girl-inside & out! I love reading your blogs! :) You're so encouraging! It's so awesome how God uses you!!! :)

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  2. Thank so much for the sweet comment Reb! You are too!! Sooo beautiful and God has used you and your blog to enourage me more than you know! I'm so blessed to know you!! :)

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