HOW TO FEAR THE LORD

 HOW TO FEAR THE LORD

Ps. 34:11-14 Come, my children, and listen to me, and I will teach you to fear the LORD. Do any of you want to live a life that is long and good? Then watch your tongue! Keep your lips from telling lies! Turn away from evil and do good. Work hard at living in peace with others. NLT

First of all, listening requires us to be still long enough to pay attention. It means we respect the one who is speaking to us. It means we are quiet while the other person speaks.

The Psalmist has something very important to teach us today. He will teach us how to fear the Lord. When we learn this lesson of life, we will be assured that life will be good for us, both now and for eternity.

To fear the Lord means we get a handle on our tongues. We understand that God is holy and expects us to live holy lives. If your heart is holy, you won’t let unholy things come out of your mouth. You will be very careful that only that which is true will come from you. What you speak comes from what is in you. You can only be truthful when the Truth lives in you. To lie when Christ is in you is showing Him great disrespect. It is being what He is not. The point that must be learned here is that we CAN control our tongues. We do determine what comes out of our mouths. If we say things we shouldn’t, then we need to confess our sin and ask the Lord to help us.

To fear the Lord also means we turn away from evil and do good. It is easier to turn towards evil than it is away from it. We have to want to not let evil influence us. We have to want to do good. It takes a great determination on our part to overcome evil and we will always have to work hard at it.

To fear the Lord also means we strive to live in peace with others. Not everyone is going to cooperate with us, but as far as we are concerned, we will work hard at it. We will try to be ambassadors for Christ amongst the people we know and live around. Peace will be our primary objective. When peace doesn’t happen, we don’t let it ruin our living. We leave it with the Lord, let Him deal with it, and keep striving to do what we know is right before God.

Are you hearing what the Lord wants you to hear today?