Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

The Number One Cause

JEREMIAH 2:19 – Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE. If we were to sit down together for a little heart-to-heart exchange of mutual encouragement and I asked, “What do you think is the number one cause of spiritual inconsistency and a cooling of the heart towards the Lord and the things of the Lord?”, how would you answer? As you think about your response, allow me to toss out some possible ones. There is a busy life. That will surely cut the spiritual nerves and numb us to spiritual things. Another one is lack of self-discipline. That’s a big one. Without self-discipline to say “no” to the flesh and “no” to good things over the better things (spiritual things of the Lord), we will drift into spiritual indifference. A third thing and an obvious one is simply tolerating, even living in known sin. This will quench and grieve the Spirit immediately, causing loss of spiritual sensitivity and establishing a backslidden condition. There are many other things I am sure we may exchange in helping us understand what causes spiritual lethargy and becoming lukewarm, even cold, to the things of the Lord. But I would say all we would identify are not the root causes. They are things that sprout from the root cause. And what is the root cause leading us into all spiritual ills and troubles in our lives? The Lord, Himself, identifies it in today’s scripture . . . “the fear of Me is not in you”. It is the lack of the fear of the Lord which tops the list of causes of all spiritual failings and troubles. But let’s look at this in the positive and consider three things the fear of the Lord will do to prevent falling into spiritual troubles and backsliding.

First, the fear of the Lord keeps us from committing sin which cools the heart for God. Joseph is a great example of how the fear of the Lord is a powerful force to defeat temptation to sin. In the alluring beauty and words of Potiphar’s wife, Joseph fought her off by the fear of the Lord – “Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her” (Genesis 39:6b-10). Now this is not a slavish fear of being afraid of the consequences of sin. Just the opposite. It is a fear filled with love. Joseph wouldn’t sin against God because he feared AND loved God. Remember, where the fear of the Lord is, so is the love of the Lord.

Next, the fear of the Lord enables us to walk eternally-minded throughout our lives. And to be eternally-minded is to live in the awareness of the day of accounting or day of personal judgment. King Solomon writes, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Friends, this life and all we do is preparation for eternity that begins with judgment. The fear of the Lord will constantly remind us of these realities and will motivate us to live accordingly, not out of being afraid, but being serious and reverent.

A final thing the fear of the Lord does to prevent spiritual backsliding and indifference is that it maintains holy fellowship with the Lord. The Apostle Paul writes, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). To keep the heart aglow with love for Christ and to daily enjoy the Christian life, we must maintain fellowship with Him. And this fellowship is a holy fellowship only experienced through the fear of the Lord.

In the event our Christian life is losing “the edge” and our spiritual sensitivity to the Lord is waning, don’t look around at many causes. Start with this one; the fear of the Lord. That is where all spiritual health, good or bad, exists.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I fail to walk with You guided and guarded by Your fear”

QUOTE: “The fear of the Lord is the strongest deterrent against sin and an essential element in His love”