What emotion?

     Great God, we fear and revere you above all else. As we turn our hearts toward your magnificence, guide our voices, hands and feet to bring you praise. We thank you for our very lives and the many ways that you have lived out your salvation though the history of our ancestors. So many know only to you have lead your influence into our very being. As we consider all your mighty works, we pray that you would inspire us to follow you faithfully this day and the days the follow. We ask that we might be a blessing to others. Those that are sick or in need, we lift into your care... We pray your guidance with those who lead and your strength with those who provide help and healing. Build up your Holy Church. In Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Acts 13:16-25

So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak: “You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’ Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised; before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet.”

     "Fearing God" is not a phrase that is currently in use. We want others to know God with a

sense of positivity, compassion, and goodness. I am not sure that this is right. Having seen tremendous circumstances that I can point to none other than God's interventions, support, or answers to prayer, I can certainly say that I respect God's workings to have a holy sense of fear. Particularly, if I found myself on the wrong side or making poor choices that did not represent what I knew to be against God's will. Of course, it is dangerous to say that we know God's will. It is more dangerous, however, to bluntly push against what it seems to obviously against multiple Bible stories. It is also interesting to note that the people of Israel frequently "pushed their luck" - actually pushing the devotion of God to their covenant. 

     There are a lot of things about God and us that we don't understand. We are wise to acknowledge God's extensive power that is far beyond our capabilities. We are not worthy to fasten God's sandals--even if God choses to walk among us!