Daily Devotion

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.

The Only One to Fear Is God

The LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
"You are not to say, 'It is a conspiracy!' In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.
"It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.
"Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
"Many will stumble over them, Then they will fall and be broken; They will even be snared and caught." - Isaiah 8:11—15 NASB

People are afraid of many things. A lot of those things don't even exist. They imagine dark conspiracies and worry about things that are unlikely, even as they happily ignore real dangers. The Israelites worshipped gods other than Yahweh and bent themselves beneath ridiculous superstitions, imagining that the motions of stars influenced their destinies or that animal innards and tossed piles of bones could give them answers. They gave money and attention to mediums and spiritists, carried lucky charms, and spoke magic incantations or waved their hands in special ways to ward off imagined curses.

Meanwhile, they ignored the real God, the one who could actually influence the events of their lives, the one who was about to bring his judgment against them. God told Jeremiah to ignore all the silliness that consumed the attention of the people around him. God alone was to be feared, and God alone, as a result, would be Jeremiah's sanctuary. God would protect him from the coming destruction of Judah, just as he had protected Moses from the plagues of Egypt. Judah would learn to fear God alone. As they came to understand God and his reasons for judgment, they would learn to love him. In that love, their other fears would fade away. They would come to know that God was the one who controlled their destinies rather than shadowy conspiracies or the motions of the stars. They would ultimately find great comfort in that realization, as should we. God can drive groundless fear away and give us minds and hearts at peace.