Living In The Fear Of God

Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. – Joshua 24:14-15

As we read today’s key passage, we see Joshua is the commander-in-chief and leader of the nation of Israel. He has led the people into the Promised Land that God has promised them, but he wants to make sure they keep that land and prosper in that land. He wants them to live happily ever after.

But on this day, he is not talking as the commander-in-chief or as a political leader; he is talking as a dad who has a family. He makes this momentous statement: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (v.15).

In effect, he drew a line in the sand. He said, “Even if no one else comes to stand on this side of the line, my family and I will.” He chose to lead his family to do three things that I am going to ask you to do as well. We’re going to look at the first thing today, and then we’ll look at the other two tomorrow.

If you want your family to be one that serves the Lord, the first thing you need to do is commit to leading your family to revere the one God. We need to teach our children about the fear of God. We are to be in such awe of who He is that our reverence and respect is the default attitude we always have toward Him. We should have so much love for what He has done for us. And when we have such love for what He knows about us, and we have such reliance on what He can do in us, we will want to do everything in our power that we can to please Him.

It doesn’t matter how much your children know if they don’t know the kind of God that deserves reverence and respect. Fearing God is the foundation of truly knowing God. Your children need to know by the way you pray, by the way you live your life, and by the way you are committed to the house of God that you are a reverent, respectful follower of the living God who fears Him in the right way.

Dear Lord, I want my family to be one that serves you and loves you, so help me to teach them to fear you. Help me to live my life in a way that shows them how to be in awe of you, respect you, and revere you. In Jesus’ name, amen.