Fear Him, not them. Daily Devotional- August 23, 2010

Daily Bible reading: 1 Samuel 15, Romans 13, Jeremiah 52, Luke 20

God gave Saul specific instructions to destroy the Amalekites completely. Instead of obeying the Lord wholeheartedly, he disobeyed by sparing the best of the cattle and everything that was good in the land. He may have thought he got away with it, but God began to speak to the prophet Samuel about it and Samuel confronted Saul on his disobedience. At first, Saul justified his behavior but later he admits, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them."

It was the fear of man that caused Saul to sin, and his kingdom to be eventually divided and given over to another.

I will be the first to admit, I don't like ruffling feathers, offending people or confrontation. Yet, as a Christian I realize that it is not an option. Jesus offended people with the truth. The gospel is offensive because the gospel rejects many sinful behaviors that man accepts and many beliefs that contradict God's absolute truth.

First, we must obey God. Craig Groeschel says "The easiest way to forget what God thinks about you is to become obsessed with what others think about you." How often do we find ourselves caring more about what other people think than we do about what God thinks? How often are we afraid to tell people the truth or confront their sin because we are more afraid of ruffling their feathers than we are in pleasing God? How many times have we made a decision to please the majority rather than the decision we knew was right and would honor God?

I have been to churches where the congregation admits that "the spirit of God used to flow" but that the Pastor no longer felt liberty to do anything out of the ordinary because of the sway of the people. Many people describe these types of churches as "dead" and "boring." I believe our lives will look a lot like those people-pleasing churches if we chose to fear man rather than God. I am so grateful to be in a church who fears God more than man and grateful to be around people who are not afraid to stand out from the crowd to please God.

Proverbs 29:25 "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe."

Chose to honor God today by seeking HIS approval and not mans,
Mel Miller