Elect Lady's Corner

We are finishing up our discussion on the “Fear of God, Not Scared Of God.” Again, God never intended for us to be scared of Him as if He would do us harm, but to fear and reverence Him so He could do us good. When we look at the behavior of Ahab, one of the most wicked kings of Israel, when God sought to kill him for the death of innocent Naboth, the fear of God came upon Ahab, and he humbled himself before God and God allowed him to live (I Kings 21:25-29). 

(Note: You better be very careful who you hook up with as a spouse because they can become your ultimate demise. The Bible says it was Jezebel, the ungodly wife Ahab married, who inspired him to do evil.) So, you should always have a holy reverence before God! By reverence, I mean: “having a feeling of deep respect, love, awe, and esteem towards God.” 

Psalm 89:7 said: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him.” We should be careful how we behave ourselves in the house of God as stated in I Timothy 3:15: “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 

Also, Psalm 100:4 said we should: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.” Actually, God’s house should be reverenced and kept better than your own house because it represents God’s dwelling. Leviticus 19:30 said: “Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.” 

If you say you are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, you ought to live like it and keep yourselves clean from sin.  Also, it’s important when we come to God’s house, we reverence Him in our heart as well as our appearance. If we can be respectful in our outer appearance according to the way we dress to come before a judge, a president, or a king, we certainly should be mindful of our appearance when we come before God to His house.

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 22:1-14 of the Marriage Feast as it reflects to His second coming and the hearts of mankind. But isn’t it interesting that Jesus used the outward appearance of a guest that was dressed inappropriately at the wedding to make His point. In the parable, the host was the King, the Father who put on a wedding for his son. 

The king invited guests who were not initially on the guest list to attend his son’s wedding, but because the ones he initially invited made excuses or didn’t want to attend, the king invited this second group of people. They were the least and the less fortunate that were permitted to attend. The king did this for the sake of his son, so the banquet would be full. 

But, as the king went to greet the guest, he noticed one of the guests did not have on wedding attire. But, after questioning the man as to why he did not have on wedding apparel to come before the king, the man couldn’t give him an answer. So, because this man showed no reverence or respect in attending the king’s banquet, the man was thrown out of the banquet and utterly punished. 

As kind as the king had been to this man to allow him to come to such an auspicious occasion, the least the man could have done is to have shown respect and dressed appropriately in respect to the king.  Likewise, we are the least in the kingdom of God; and yet we are invited to come before God each time we enter His house to feast from the Lord’s table.  So, the least we can do is dress respectably and appropriately at God’s invitation to His house, the Church! 

David said in Psalm 8:4-5 “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet.” What a privilege and honor God has graciously bestowed upon us! So, remember, we should never be scared of God, but we should always have a healthy “Fear of God.”