Tag: Fearing God

What Kind of Heart do You Have?

Do you have a heart that desires to fear God and keep His commandments? I have been pondering the following scripture and wondered if I had a heart that wanted to fear God and keep His commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:29 (ESV) states, “Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” (NKJV) states, “Oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!” (NIV) “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear Me and keep all My commands always…”

How do you know your heart?

The first step to finding out what kind of heart you have is to ask God to show you but be ready to hear the answer. Psalm 139:23-24 states, “Search me, Oh God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Also, Jeremiah 17:9-10 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick [wicked; KJV]; who can understand [know] it? 10’I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.’” 

What does it mean to have a heart that fears God?

The fear of the Lord is to have deep respect, love, and awe which we demonstrate in our obedience to God’s Word (Deuteronomy 6:2, 10:12; 1 Samuel 12:14). The following verses describe how we are to fear God and in fact is the demonstration that you do have a heart that fear’s God:

Do you Praise Him always? You who fear the Lord, praise Him! …glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, … ̶̶ Psalms 22:23

Do you faithfully serve Him? Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things He has done for you. ̶ 1 Samuel 12:24

Do you turn from evil and desire to do what is right? Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. 8) It will be healing to your flesh (body; NAS) and refreshment to your bones. ̶ Proverbs 3:7-8

Do you hate evil, pride, and disobedience? The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. ̶ Proverbs 8:13 (Froward means not willing to yield or comply with what is required or is reasonable; perverse; or disobedient.)

Do you have a submissive, humble heart? Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity (the pit). ̶ Proverbs 28:14

Do you trust the Lord? You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. ̶ Psalms 115:11

Why Should We Fear God and Keep His Commandments?

The Bible tells us that if we do fear God and keep His commandments that things/life might go well for us and for our children. Do you want that for your life? This does not mean that you will not have to go through trials to strengthen your faith and patience. Or suffer troubles because of the sinful world we live in, but life will go well in general. You will have peace and joy despite your circumstances. The following are five reasons why fearing God benefits us.

1.  God’s angel protects you, and you will be blessed and lack nothing. Psalms 34:7-9 states, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8) Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9) Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!”

2.  God will help you and shield you from all harm. Psalm 115:11 states, “You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.” Proverbs 19:23 “The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.”

3.  You will have confidence and you will feel safe. Proverb 14:26 states, “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and His children shall have a place of refuge.”

4.  You will have wisdom and know what to do. Psalms 111:10 states, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” See my post about why the fear of the Lord gives wisdom. THE MYSTERY OF WISDOM—PART 2

5.  You will have a long life. Proverbs 10:27 “The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.”

Why don’t Christians fear God and Obey Him?

This question is a hard question but after pondering it for several days, I think the parable of the soils explains it well. Let’s look at Jesus’s explanation of this parable in Matthew 13:18-23. Where is your heart in this parable?

vs18  “Hear then the parable of the sower: 

vs19  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 

vs20  As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

vs22  As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 

Vs 23  As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Four Heart Conditions. What kind of heart do you have?

1) Prideful heart: A person who lacks understanding and is a fool. This person is more interested in being self-centered and following the desires of their flesh.

2) Cluttered heart: This person believes but doesn’t do the hard work to remove the rocks of offenses by forgiving and repenting of the sins in their heart. So that when the hard times and persecution come, they don’t have the depth of faith to endure and overcome.

3) Distracted heart: This person knows the truth but is distracted by all they must do or want to do in the world that they don’t have time for God and kingdom living. Or they are distracted by materialism, and they become focused on acquiring wealth instead of obeying God.

4) Fruitful heart: This person understands and believes the truth. They desire to obey God and fear Him by repenting of sin and self-centered pride; putting off their old, sinful nature and putting on a new, regenerated self; forgiving offenses; and setting their minds on God to love and serve Him instead of being distracted by the concerns and materialism of this world.

Conclusion:

What kind of heart do you have? Even if you have a hard, cluttered, or distracted heart, you can change it with God’s help. You can break a hard heart by breaking up the hard ground using God’s Word and seeking God to remove your pride and sinful nature. You can restore a cluttered heart by forgiving all offenses and repenting of all sins. You can refocus a distracted heart by putting off the desires of the world and desire instead to worship, love, and serve God only. The only motivation necessary to have a fruitful heart is a desire to fear God and obey His commands. Do you want the benefits of fearing God or the destruction of your self-centered, sinful desires, worry, and greed?

At the end of King Solomon’s life, he said in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14) For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” King Solomon did not always fear God or keep God’s commandments because he married foreign wives who distracted him and led him to worship their foreign gods. In the end, King Solomon realized his error. Where is your heart? I would love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment.

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All verses are from the English Standard Bible. If you find my posts and website helpful, please share this link with your friends and family; hopeforcompletehealing.com. The information is copyright protected. Please do not reproduce any part of the posts or my book without proper citation to Joyce Hanscom and this website.

Check out my latest book Breaking Mental Strongholds which you can order on Amazon. To learn more about it, read my post called Breaking Mental Strongholds Book. Also, check out Fighting Unseen Battles on Amazon. To learn more about this book, read: How to Fight Unseen Battles.

Contact me at hopeforcompletehealing@gmail.com, and ask for a PDF of Eight Life-changing Prayers from the Bible. The prayers are for the Spirit of wisdom, renewal, spiritual strength, knowledge of His will, virtues of God, non-believers, 23rd Psalm, and victory. I will also send you the Lord’s Prayer Model to pray effectively. Please leave your name, so I know you are a real person making the request.

WHAT IS YOUR FINAL MESSAGE?

What will your final message be to those around you? King Solomon’s last message was, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl. 13-14). He says that man’s whole existence is the revere God to the point of wanting to please Him by obeying His commands. My last message will be, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2Cor. 5:10).  Yes, God knows all things, even things we think are secret. He knows our thoughts (Ps. 139:1-4), which is why we need to keep our minds on the things above and not on the things of the earth (Col. 3:1-2). How consciously aware are you that God sees all that you do?  How will you live your life differently knowing this fact?

Why Should We Fear God?

When we fear God, we will have wisdom (Prov. 9:10). Wisdom helps us make good decisions and choose the right actions. The people I know who do not fear God make foolish decisions that have negative consequences in their lives. The worst consequence is being sent to hell because they refuse to repent of their sin and seek God’s forgiveness.

Pastor Lawry responds to people who say, “How can a loving God send people to hell” with “God doesn’t send people to hell; people choose to go.”  Romans 1:19-21 states, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”  We all know people who foolishly live their lives as though they will not stand before God to give an account for the things they have done while in the body.  Futile thinking is thinking thoughts that do not have meaning or value. We control what we think and what we believe. Every day, acknowledge God and do what pleases Him by obeying the commands found in the Bible, namely, to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.  Then love others as yourself. Proverbs 15:3 states, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” How often does the accounting you will make before God impact your actions and attitudes?

Our lives need to revolve around God because He created us to be in fellowship with Him. Since He sees everything, and everything we do is for Him, then nothing in life is pointless. An encouraging word, showing kindness or patience, a quiet prayer—they all have meaning to God. Therefore, we should live our lives by design and not haphazardly.

Where Do Good and Evil Come From?

Interestingly, there were two trees in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve could not eat from. One was called the knowledge of good and evil, and the other was called the tree of life. God threw Satan out of heaven onto earth because of his prideful rebellion, and he came to Eve and tempted her to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why? You can read the story in Genesis 3. The knowledge of good and evil came as a result of sin. We have a choice to obey God and do good or disobey God and sin, which is evil.

Good and evil also come from the heart. Luke 6:45 states, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” You know the saying, hurting people hurt people, and loving people love people. The purpose of my website is to help you work through the evil done to you that has left your soul wounded and has stolen your peace, and crippled your ability to love. The wounds of our soul generate wrong thinking and unhealthy beliefs that direct us to do evil. In my book Hope for Complete Healing, I explain how to heal your heart, which can be found on my website.

A Consequence of Doing Evil

The worst consequence of evil is separation from God, who gives us life and every good thing. 1Peter 3:10-12 states, “For ‘Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil (Ps. 34:14-16).” When our hearts are full of hurt and resentment, we cannot seek peace because we don’t have peace in our hearts. 2Corinthians 7:1 states, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

What will be your last word to those around you? I would like to know, please leave a comment, so other can know as well.

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All verses are from the English Standard Bible unless otherwise indicated. If you find my posts and website helpful, please share the links with your friends and family, hopeforcompletehealing.com. The information is copyright protected. No part of the posts or my book may be reproduced without proper citation to Joyce Hanscom and this website. 

Contact me at hopeforcompletehealing@gmail.com, and ask for a PDF of Eight Prayers from the Bible. The prayers are for the Spirit of wisdom, renewal, spiritual strength, knowledge of His will, virtues of God, salvation for non-believers, 23rd Psalm, and victory. Please leave your name, so I know you are a person making the request.