Day 30: The Fear that Leads to Wellness

Posted on: April 7, 2025
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

Every day, pray aloud worshipfully this golden thread that weaves through the entire tapestry of God’s intent for us.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,

when I will make a new covenant with the

house of Israel. . . .

I will put my law within them,

and I will write it on their hearts.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

They shall all know me, from the least of them

to the greatest. . . .

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will

remember their sin no more.

(Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34)

Daily Scripture

Deuteronomy 4:9-10; 5:28-29; 6:1-3

Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, “Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.”

And the LORD said to me, . . . “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!”

?Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Picking Up the Thread

After his people languished more than four hundred years in Egyptian slavery, the LORD brought them through the parted waters of the Red Sea to freedom. But the journey to the Promised Land did not go smoothly. Often the people doubted and rebelled. Consequently, their wilderness wanderings took forty years. On the eve of finally entering Canaan, Moses gave the people final instructions. Deuteronomy means “second law,” and so this book contains the restating of God’s mighty acts and the laws he gave his people. Moses reminded them of the precious gift of the LORD’s commandments. He urged them to remember all God had done for them as inspiration to trust his promises. Fearing God lay at the heart of this faith and obedience.

But as we have seen, healthy Biblical fear of God is not abject terror. It is the path to flourishing. In our passages, remembering who God is and what he has done and commanded engenders this fear. For by fear, God means the constant reference to his reality and loving purposes. He means respect for his sovereignty and regard for his good laws. All this is not so we can be automatons or trembling slaves. This fear is “so that it might go well with [us]” (Deuteronomy 5:29). Fearing God means knowing that his commandments are not arbitrary but crucial to a meaningful, fruitful life. Indeed, we have seen through history how the morality given in Scripture has led to stunningly just, free and flourishing cultures. God has our best interests in mind!

Stitching It In

What creative and saving acts of God can you recall from the Bible? Start from the beginning of Genesis and see if you can come up with ten events. They might impact many people or be focused on just one individual. Feel free to jot notes on this page!

Now see if in looking back over your own life, you can name ten creative or saving acts of God. These could be healings, opportunities, spiritual awakenings, relational gifts, mission endeavors, answers to prayer or experiences in worship.

Next, can you remember two or three times when you experienced how “God’s way” is better than the way you chose at first? Or can you recall a time you realized that God’s moral laws actually lead to good outcomes?

Now, let these memories of God’s goodness guide you in the coming week. How might remembering God’s earlier work and respecting the truth of his laws apply to a situation you face in the near future? How might a healthy fear of God influence your plans?

Praying Along the Pattern

Our Father, Moses asked a question of your people,

“What great nation is there that has a god so near to it

As the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules

So righteous as all this law that I set before you today?”

(Deuteronomy 4:7-8).

I answer with the ancients, “No one! No people! No nation!

Has a god so near as you dear Father of Jesus Christ.

None has a Word so beautiful and life-giving

As the Scriptures you have revealed.

None as a path to life so real and reliable