Scripture: Luke 1:50
His mercy extends to those who fear him, sovaldi sale from generation to generation.

Thought for the Day: We read the word “fear” with modern eyes, buy cialis and interpret its meaning with modern minds. Things we “fear” are bad, evil, and scary. There’s a “fear fest” every Halloween. We often talk about “living in fear,” which implies a worried, defeated state of mind. Fear is a bad thing.

But when Scripture talks about fearing God, the idea of fear is not one of horror, but of such awe-inspired, overwhelming emotion at the recognition of God’s magnificence that one is stopped in their tracks, slack-jawed and dewy-eyed like a character in a Spielberg movie. In the First Century CE, fear of God was a sense of awe and “oneness” with everything that drops you to your knees with its power. The sensation can certainly be overwhelming and frightening! But ultimately fear of God was viewed as an intense and beneficial state of being. For them, fear of God was a sense of respect and humility when confronted with the face of God.

Today, the idea of “fear of God” is too often interpreted with our modern understanding of fear—we should be afraid of God, because that fear of Divine retribution will cause us to act like better people. But faith isn’t something to be scared into, it’s something that happens when you become awe-struck by God, literally stopped in your tracks with the realization that you are beloved, more totally than you could have imagined. Fear of God is that weak-in-the-knees feeling that compels you to weep from joy because of the power of the Spirit—the Holy Christ, moving within you, changing you, ever-present on your spiritual journey.

God is not something to be afraid of. God is to be loved, as we are beloved by God.

Prayer: I do not fear your presence, Lord, but welcome it with awe and respect. Amen.