Healthy Fear

"And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city."  Mark 11:18-19 (ESV)

We often try to destroy that which we fear. We try to destroy God rather than fear Him. We try and destroy viruses rather than fear them. We try to eradicate poverty rather than fear it. 

Fear can be a good thing, for it makes our actions align with something more powerful than us. We seem to want to eliminate it because we want nothing to be more powerful than ourselves, yet in reality, many things are more powerful than us. 

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Those who recognize that God is almighty must respond to that fact just as I respond to viruses by washing my hands and the thought of poverty by planning, working, and saving. 

Reasonable fear is healthy. The elimination of fear, although a natural desire, disconnects us from reality. 

There is an almighty, all-knowing, ever-present God, and I am not Him. My fear for Him is healthy, and I will not attempt to minimize this truth. 

Do we really know God?

And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”   Mark 3:11 (ESV)

One cannot help but wonder why Satan and the demons would resist God in the first place since whenever they are in God’s presence they fall down, and they acknowledge Him as God.

Think of how powerfully persuasive Satan is. To persuade those who were in the presence of God that God would somehow relinquish his power and authority to Satan is unfathomable.

Satan is so clever that He makes sin look like a good idea, even, perhaps, something God intended us to enjoy. Those who are trapped in sin usually do not know how they got there, and they have no idea how to get out from under its influence.

Many who struggle with sin know God and acknowledge God as God, yet this acknowledgement does nothing to break the power of sin in their lives.

Perhaps they know God like Satan and his demons know God, and therefore remain powerless to overcome the sin that is so natural to the Godless.

A proper relationship with God actually changes our behavior

Religion can be cruel

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.  Mark 3:1-6 (ESV)

It seems as if Jesus was always looking to see if a Pharisee was in the area.  When they were present, Jesus did something kind to expose their evil.

Religion can be cruel and evil, whereas a relationship with God, true Christianity, is kind.

Anger and grief are normal responses to a Godless religious system that uses rather than loves people, and we would be best to have nothing to do with it.