Weekly Devotional - Marissa Lee

Awesome and Terrifying Love

There are moments that naturally slow us down. Moments where we look up and realize how small we are in the best possible way. A wide-open sky. A powerful storm. A view that makes you pause instead of rush. Those moments don’t scare us. They steady us.
That’s often how Scripture talks about the fear of the Lord.

It’s not about being afraid of God. It’s about awe. It’s about letting God be big again in our lives. The Bible calls this the beginning of wisdom and the starting place of apprenticeship to Jesus, because when we see God clearly, everything else starts to line up.

As Pastor Aaron shared this Sunday, problems arise when the fear of the Lord gets replaced by other fears. Fear of losing peace. Fear of upsetting people. Fear of things not going the way we planned. Those fears quietly begin to shape our decisions.

Solomon’s life shows us this clearly.

He was loved by God. He was wise. He was blessed. But over time, his fear of losing stability and control led him to compromise. What started as a desire for peace slowly pulled his heart away from wholehearted devotion to God. Loving God wasn’t the issue. Letting other fears take the lead was.

This is where the tension matters.

God is powerful, beyond what we can fully grasp. And at the same time, God is kind and near. We see both truths held together at the cross. Strength and sacrifice. Authority and love. Not a God who pushes us away, but one who invites us closer.

When Job encountered God, he didn’t panic or defend himself. He simply grew quiet. He recognized he was in the presence of something holy and good. That kind of awe doesn’t create distance. It creates trust.

A healthy fear of the Lord doesn’t make us rigid or anxious. It settles us. It helps us live with clarity instead of fear, and with trust instead of control. When God is rightly placed at the center, the rest of life doesn’t feel quite as heavy.

Reflection Question
What fears tend to quietly shape your decisions, and what might change if you allowed awe of God to take the lead instead?

-Marissa