Awe, Adoration, and Arachnids

I've been thinking quite a lot about fear lately. Both fear of things to come and the fear of God. But before I dive into this post, I have a story about fear. Tonight I was cleaning the cottage for a relative who is going to come and spend the weekend with us. Now, it is spider season here at the Brown house. Webs and nasty spiders are everywhere. Going up to the cottage porch, I ran into a web. Thankfully it was just a little spider, but it still put me on edge. I went into the cottage and found a bigger spider, not too big but big enough, in the shower. Still wondering how that spider had gotten into the cottage in the first place, I started to make the bed. The quilt was folded up on the floor, so I put it on the bed and began unfolding it. I kid you not, there was a big wolf spider in the folds of the quilt. I about had a heart attack. Needless to say, I screamed and ran over to house, refusing to go back over to the cottage until both spiders had been killed. This incident reminded me of the statement I've been thinking about for the past couple of days. Fear is not of God. Fear is of the devil.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear

but of power and love and self-control.

//2 Timothy 1:7 

God has given us POWER to overcome fear. He has graciously given us the strength to fight our fears and to trust him with our worries. He has also given us a spirit of love. He wants us to reach out in love and cast away fear. He does not want us acting out of fear, but out of love. Be bold! Don't be afraid!

Then there's self-control. When I read this verse and started thinking about it, I thought, Why self-control? Why not one of the other Fruits of the Spirit, like peace? So I looked up self-control.

Self-control: control or restraint of oneself or one's actions, feelings, etc.

He gives us a spirit of self-control to restrain ourselves from acting out of fear or jumping to conclusions based on our fear. 

But what about the fear of the Lord? 

The fear of the Lord

is clean,

enduring forever;

the rules of the Lord

are true,

and righteous altogether.

//Psalm 19:9

The fear of the Lord is awe. He is strong, capable of anything, including discipline. We stand in awe of him for these reasons and more. But usually we focus on his love, and not how in awe we are of him. And yes, definitely, we need to remember his love for us. But how often do we just sit in awe of him? Almost afraid of his vastness and power? Honestly, I think this needs to happen more often. I mean, our God created GALAXIES y'all.

He came up with the way our brains work. He created personalities. Math equations. Languages. The way a flower grows. I mean, how often do we ponder all the things he's created? You're probably sitting there thinking, 'Yeah, I know, EVERYTHING.' But what specifically falls under everything? And the fact that he's the Creator is not the only thing we should stand in awe of. What about how he has so much love, an eternity's worth, to pour on us? That this love gave up his only Son to die the most shameful death so that worthless sinners could be his sons and daughters? That just amazes me. We don't fear God enough. We don't take enough time to sit down and think about who he really is and let ourselves be completely dumbfounded and awestruck. Because to be honest, it scares us. But God takes that fear, and turns it into adoration, because fear is not from him. Love is.