Who Do You Fear?

Who Do You Really Fear?

Only Fear God

For everyone there is some friend, some sphere of influence, some colleague, someone somewhere you so respect, or so fear, that you can’t bear the thought of disappointing them. Fearing man goes beyond fearing physical harm. Many fear rejection, ridicule, 

or disapproval. Some even become “approval addicts,” obsessively pursuing human approval at whatever cost and anxiously brooding over what others think of them.  As a matter of fact, the Message version paraphrases the above verse, 

“The fear of human

opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that.”

When individuals are ruled by the fear of man, they will shrink from their convictions and violate their own conscience.  We can see from this verse (and perhaps from our own experiences and observations)

that “peer pressure” doesn’t simply affect teenagers.  If we are overcome by the fear of human opinion, it is probably because we’ve magnified man and minimized God in our thinking.

John 12:42-43 (NLT)

42Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn’t admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. 43 For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.

That fear must die. If the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of man is the beginning of misery, compromise, and disappointment. You will not last as a Christian–and you will not be truly happy–unless you fight to be dead to the approval of the world and live to show yourself only approved unto God.