Father,
You have called us
to love You. We work at that. And we work at that because we want to love You.
You have called us to obey You. And we also work at that. And we, likewise,
work at that because we want to. But there is another thing that You call us
to. You call us to fear You. And that confuses us. How do we work at that?
Father, Your Word
says that perfect love casts out fear. And Your love certainly is perfect. So,
what does it mean for us, who have experienced Your perfect love, to fear You?
Father, in Your Word
You have made it clear that fear, the right kind of fear, comes as we get to
know You. Fear grows as we understand that, though we are made in Your image,
though we reflect something of who You are – fear grows as we understand that we
are nothing like You.
You are the Creator.
You have created everything that we see, as well as all that we don't see. And
You have created all of this from nothing. We can't do that.
You are the
Sustainer. You keep Your creation going second by second. That we and
everything else exist in this very moment is only because You sustain creation.
We can’t do that either.
You are the Eternal.
There was no beginning for You. There will be no end for You. Time doesn’t even
apply to You. It is something You created. We are completely bounded by time
and always will be.
You are completely
independent. You have no needs of any sort for something else to meet. We are
full of needs.
We can apply words
to these notions to describe You, but that doesn't mean that we actually
understand them. And that makes You mysterious. There are some aspects of who
You are that we might gain some faint notion about. But there are aspects of
who You are that we will never have even a feeble inkling of understanding
about, not in this life or even in the next. But You know us through and
through.
Father, we need to
understand better who You are so that we will understand better that we really
don't understand who You are. We ask that You would make that happen. It is as
that happens that we will fear You in the way that You want.
That's when all our
pride will vanish. That's when our thinking that we are so strong, so able,
will be shamed. That's when we will understand that You are Almighty God, and
we are feeble creatures. That's when we will fear You which is what we want to
do. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.