To Fear God

Our next guest blogger is Dawn Walker. She is the founder and director of Single Parent Missions, an advocate to see more churches catch the vision of single parent ministry, my co-author of the upcoming book "The Daddy Gap", and a very wonderful friend. To learn more about Dawn's ministry and to sign up for her daily "Hope Notes", visit www.singleparentmissions.org.


“He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” –Joshua 4:24 (NIV)

I’ve always connected with God through nature, but mountains in particular have always stirred my heart. There’s something about the wildness and grandeur and danger of them that draws me closer to the presence of God.

I am blessed to live just an hour’s drive from the Appalachian Mountains in Eastern Kentucky. And periodically I feel God calling me to come meet with Him out there. Last Friday was one of those days. It was a perfect summer day…a crisp 78 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and not a thing on my agenda. I packed up my son, filled our backpacks with water and snacks, and headed out. Even on our drive out there, I felt a great sense of anticipation.

As soon as we arrived and got out of the car at the trail head, I could literally feel myself breathe more deeply. We set off on our hike and reached the Natural Bridge—a scenic ridge of rock at the top—within about 45 minutes. As we walked along the narrow ridge that had no guardrails but overlooked the beautiful mountains and valley below, I caught myself both marveling at the incredible view and considering the fact that one careless move too close to the edge would plunge me instantly to my death.

And it struck me what a great illustration this is of what it means to fear God.

Maybe God created mountains for us so that we might encounter something bigger and more powerful than ourselves; so we could learn to ‘fear’ or acknowledge His power and greatness. You have to admit, there’s a certain measure of fear that we experience on a mountain that we just don’t in the tidy grass of our backyard. Yet it’s not the kind of fear that is meant to paralyze or oppress us, it’s the healthy kind of fear where we have a heightened sense of awe and wonder and beauty, while at the same time realizing what’s at stake and that our attention to staying on the right path matters.

Fearing God is knowing that being near to Him means being closer to risk…but it also means being closer to miracles. It means obeying His call to come up, maybe even forging a steep trail alone not knowing how much further or what awaits us at the top…but it also means discovering God’s faithfulness in sustaining us and His goodness in surprising us with stunning, unforgettable views.

Fearing God means counting the cost by preparing well and conditioning ourselves for some suffering…but it also means discovering and developing more of His strength and His character in us. Fearing God also means leaving some things behind; it means trusting Him when He says that we have a far greater chance of reaching the summit when we travel light, knowing that if we try to carry more than we really need, or refuse to unload stuff that is clearly holding us back, we will get bogged down and have to stop short of the destination He has for us.

Finally, to fear God is to understand how much it matters who you take with you as you progress up the mountain. Moses understood this when he was called further up Mount Sinai to receive the stone tablets from God.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.
~Exodus 24:12-13 (KJV)

Notice who Moses didn’t take…the masses of Israelites who would whine and complain and slow him down or distract him from his purpose. He took Joshua, his trusted apprentice; the one who served the Lord faithfully and ‘ministered’ to Moses by serving him and being a constant voice of encouragement to Him. As hard as it may be sometimes, fearing God will inevitably require leaving some people behind who aren’t up for the journey…but then getting the gift of a few remarkable people God brings alongside us to share the adventure with and who spur us on to greater heights.