Isaiah 66:2, All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
What really scares you? When I was a small boy my parents took me to a roadside fair which held a haunted house as one of its attractions. At five years old I was convinced that I needed to go in and investigate this “cool” looking building, begging my parents who knew I would never make it through. Since one of them had to go, my mother decided to go with me. My father waited outside to retrieve my eventually retreating self. At the very first scary event – a light flashing in a dark room with scary noises, I was done. I left the way I went in which was a feat in itself. Being short had some advantages. I may have been young but I knew where the door was. Haunted houses don’t bother me anymore. As a former plumber there are other aspects to a house that do, but nothing really terrifying.
When we are scared it is because we are overwhelmed with an inability to control what might be, or actually is a dangerously powerful circumstance. The Bible points out that when man is confronted with the reality and voice of God, he often “trembles.” Do you tremble when God speaks? John would lose all physical strength according to Revelation 1:17. Paul fell to the ground in Acts 9:4. Moses trembled when God spoke to him. (Acts 7:32) Peter fell to Jesus knees and begged him to go away from Peter’s sinful self. (Luke 5:8)
Do we still retain a sense of awe as far as God is concerned, or have we become so familiar with Him, that we no longer respect the magnanimous and only living deity we worship? Do we respect His Word, as His voice? Do we approach the Bible with a divine expectation, or the contemplation of “hopefully” unwasted time? Satan desires to turn the valuable into the worthless. He wants us to see the worthless as cherished. He wants us to see our heavenly resources finite and insignificant. If Proverbs 9:10 is true at all, then we must become humble to understand God’s greatness. There are things in life only visible to those who know genuine fear and reverence for God.
As you study your Bible this year, read it as if God were speaking directly to you. Because He is!!! The God of all creation is now communicating with you. The voice that can create something out of nothing, define the hearts of men, and bring the dead back to life, now speaks to you. The possibility should cause shuddering, and the fact should require humility. I should not be able to read the preface to the Bible which is written by human publishers, much less have the blessing and honor to have access to the wisdom, guidance, and love spoken to me by God through His HOLY Word. Every single verse contains a value beyond my worth. In total it defines my past, my path through life, and even my eternity beyond this life. Some balk at the concept of Holy Scripture, because it becomes less democratic and far too immovable for modern man. It is rigid, but liberating. It is simply defined the best plan for man, because it is the holy will of the living God.
God bless you as you read with respect, and live with a holy purpose.