Message summary: I am to live my life here as a stranger in reverent fear.

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“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27). “Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear” (1 Peter 1:17).

The other day I was visiting with an employee in a production shop. I wasn't paying attention and suddenly touched something very hot. My reflexes are still good and I quickly pulled back my hand from the hot surface and thankfully was not burned. Turns out it was a commercial glue gun!

Fear isn’t usually seen as positive or healthy. We’ve heard all our lives, “Get over your fear". “Stop being afraid!” “Don’t be a baby". But then we’re also taught to healthily respect the heat from a stove (or hot glue gun), the dangerous height from a second floor (or higher) window, or the electrical current from an outlet in the wall. We’re taught how to accurately assess dangers so that we have a proper fear and understanding of the situation, and respond accordingly. We wouldn't live very long if we didn't.

Many of us have memorized a Scripture that says in part, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear.” This is a stirring verse to memorize and apply when dealing with spiritual fears.

Yet the daily texts speak of a reverential fear of God which is a healthy, beneficial fear. It is greatly lacking in our day. A healthy, holy fear of God is an essential component in the life of the maturing believer in forming our attitude and approach toward a holy God. John gives perspective on the Isle of Patmos as he wrote, “Who will not fear You, O Lord and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy” (Revelation 15:4).

In a secular culture where the Lord’s holy name is commonly spoken in vain or blasphemously, often where God is  referred to as “the man upstairs”, we need a good understanding and reverential fear of God. The Bible says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).

Our second daily verse may be one of the most ignored truths by modern Christians, especially in places like here in the USA where life has been relatively comfortable for most of us: “Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear". We expect this would be much more striking to scores of our fellow believers who live in harsh and dangerous conditions such as Nigeria. But that could change here in the US as well.

In this text we are pictured as a pilgrim people whose true citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), living temporarily in a world that is not our final home.

Read this verse over a few times and prayerfully ask yourself, “Am I living my life here on earth as a stranger in reverent fear?” Consider personalizing and memorizing it as a statement of resolve. I am to live my life here as a stranger in reverent fear.

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13.

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we read in Proverbs that “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death” and “The fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” We must choose to fear You rather than man so that we prepare ourselves for living as sojourners here below with heaven in view at all times. We can do this when we live as strangers in reverent fear of You, our Father in heaven. Amen.

(Proverbs 14:27; Proverbs 29:25)

Study note: In today's second text "stranger" is translated in various ways in different versions. See here for the list in Bible Gateway.  Other versions use sojourners, time of your exile, temporary residence, stay on earth, foreigners, pilgrimage.

Spurgeon writes, "You are only here for a while, you are sojourners, foreigners, pilgrims passing through a country where you have no abiding place; be therefore careful and even fearful lest you should become like the people among whom you dwell, have a holy dread of the contaminations of sin: “Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:” Not in unbelieving fear, but in that holy carefulness which watches against sin of every kind lest in any way you should spoil your holy work for God."

Hebrews 11:13 states, "These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth."