January 14th

Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. Joshua 24:14

The phrase, fear the Lord, is the correct usage of fear. We must at least respect and honor the greatness of our God. It is in holding fast to this that our paths are made straight. The Lord allows us to fear Him so that we might avoid even more trouble and sorrow. He is the only one who knows the past, present and future of our lives.

The Lord’s constant desire for us is to preserve us from the destruction and chaos of serving and worshipping idols. An idol is anything that we consistently put in God’s place to bring us comfort, happiness or satisfaction.

Faithfulness in fearing and serving the Lord is a sure way to bring blessing to us. We live in our culture as aliens with different values than our society. The way of the world is constantly offering us substitutes and new opportunities to worship something other than the Lord God Almighty.