Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Monday Meditations. Today is a loaded topic, so without further ado,

I am just going to dive right into this. To start the week off right, the phrase we're going to

meditate on is holy fear. It's a challenge to define holy fear, or the act of fearing God, in just a

simple sentence or even a paragraph for that matter, but or the act of fearing God in just a simple sentence or even a paragraph

for that matter. But discussing the complexity of the topic and all its fullness would take

much longer than this short podcast episode allows and even a lengthy attempt would leave

us far from proficient in our understanding of it. When preaching on the fear of God,

Charles Spurgeon said that

there is a fear with which a Christian has nothing to do. It is a type of fear that is more like

bondage and dread and torment. It's operating under the law instead of under grace. And contrary to

that, he described the fear of God as being like a beloved child's

fear of his father. That child is in awe of him, and it arises out of admiration of his father's

character. He sees his father's wisdom and trusts what his father tells him. He has a profound

conviction that his father is good, his father is

kind, wise, and couldn't do anything or ask him to do anything, which wouldn't promote his own good.

The child's awe prevents him from questioning his father. He has such high esteem for him that he

trusts his father's character, conduct, and his conclusions.

He is obedient to his father's presence, and the child watches his own behavior carefully out of respect for him.

He doesn't want to offend his father or act contrary to his will.

It causes the child to avoid anything that would cause his father

displeasure or grieve his heart. If the child makes a mistake, he is eager to rectify it.

So to put simply, this family is the holy fear we should cultivate within ourselves.

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