...love and revere God...

“18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, 19 and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.’ 20 Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.’ 21 Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” Exodus 20:18-21.

I have always loved these four verses following God's handing down of the Ten Commandments to Moses because of verse 20: “Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”

These verses remind me not to be afraid of God, for God is only testing me for my own good. God wants me to be a faithful, dependable, and holy follower of Him! I can’t do this if I continually am afraid of God. You see, God wants to test us every day to make us stronger and more faithful and loving in His presence. His testing us is for our life. God allows temptations from Satan because these are tests. God allows these so that we may have deeper love — a reverence — or fear — of Him. “Fear of the Lord” is the same as reverence for the Lord. “Fear of the Lord” has nothing to do with being afraid of God! “Fear of the Lord” is about deeply revering the Lord. And reverence for God helps empower us to resist temptation and walk away from sin.

That’s why this single verse is so important. So don’t be afraid of God. Instead, push away from temptations and tests in your life so that you can revere God deeply. This is how God’s grace enables us to avoid temptations and sin! Revere God by feeling profound, deep respect and awe of Almighty God! To fear God is to have a deep reverence and love that leads us to love God deeply and to devote ourselves to living in love of God and love of others.

All of this deep love and reverence for God, of course, comes to us and fills our hearts by virtue of the grace of God. God gives us what we need, not what we deserve. We need to love God deeply and follow Christ! So revere God who empower you to avoid sin and instead follow Him and love Him!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.