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To Fear or Not to Fear? When Will Lent Be Over?

To Fear or Not to Fear? When Will Lent Be Over?

Last updated on: March 8, 2024 at 9:19 am by Kathy King

To Fear or Not to Fear? When Will Lent Be Over? 2024-03-08T09:19:13-05:00 Kathy King

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To Fear or Not to Fear? When Will Lent Be Over?

During Sunday school last week, we were discussing Lent. One of the participants expressed that while she was practicing Lent, she had a fear that in her attempt to sacrifice, she would be on the receiving end of God’s ire. Her reasoning was the passages in the Bible that tell us to fear the Lord. We talked about several scriptures that mentioned fear.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise fear and instruction. Proverbs 1:7

Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. Psalm 34:9

Before we delve into the conversation that ensued during class, I must share some Lent funnies with you.

“Hear me out, reverse Lent where we pick a new vice to crutch us through the next 40 days of nightmares.” Brent Coleman

“Once again my child has vowed to give up broccoli, a food he has never actually tasted, for Lent.” Anne Theriault

You can read more funnies here.

As our class began to discuss the fear of God, we started to find other passages of scripture that mentioned holy fear. As folks continued to share, many people were taught in their churches that anything bad that happened to them was a direct result of not having enough holy fear. To some, it caused them to step away from the faith; to others, it led to a feeling of walking on eggshells day in and day out.

Psalm 19:9 reads:

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

Read Bible Verses about fearing God.

What we found was not a debilitating fear that rules our lives; we discovered that to fear God is to model oneself after his character. A disposition that is pure, true, righteous, wise, radiant, courageous, strong and confident. Those were just a few traits that we found at a glance. Most of all, in the words of 2 Timothy 1:17: God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and self-control. In other words, a holy awe of God brings us closer to the person of God. We may fall, and we may break our Lent promise, but we do not have to walk in fear. Rather, we can continue forward in prayer to be more like him. That certainly is much better than walking on eggshells any day. We concluded that we must continue in prayer, ask God for his forgiveness, and wend our way towards a greater understanding each day. In my prior musings I refer to each little thought as a gift. What is our gift during lent? The gift is God in all his wisdom gives us a standard to run towards that in doing so, takes away fear one day at a time.

You can read other musings about Lent here:

Why I Love Lent: Sin Is One Of My Favorite Things To Talk About

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