Count all as LOSS, Focus on the CROSS and Fear The BOSS!!!

“To depart from evil, we need a healthy fear of the Lord.  If we not, we will fear what evil will do, rather than what He might do.”

Good morning!  Have you ever been overwhelmed with anxiety just thinking about the possibility of falling back into your besetting sin?  Through the years, I have worked with hundreds of people who were plagued by this very problem.  These dedicated disciples had the right idea in that they eschewed the habits that haunted their pasts; however, they knew not how to be freed from fear of their custom made, designer devils.  In other words, they mistakenly feared the evils that would result from sin rather than setting their fear where it belonged–IN the Lord.

If you have ever been to an RU meeting, you’ve probably noticed how we discourage our students from gloating about their particular stronghold(s).  As we say, “We don’t want to talk about the things we’ve done to God (our addictions), but rather, we want to talk about things God has done for us!”

This is one characteristic that makes Reformers unique from most addiction programs.   Why do you think we do this?  It’s because we understand that in order to depart from evil we must fear our Lord, not our former stronghold (evil).  Therefore, we encourage our students to maintain full and complete focus on the Lord and His goodness-not their habit and its badness; hence, we don’t talk about them with specificity.  You see, when we keep our eyes firmly fixed on the cross, all humanistic issues begin to wane and lose their grasp upon our lives.

Proverbs 19:23 teaches this concept very clearly, “The fear of the Lord [tendeth] to life; and [he that hath it] shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.”  The author, wise Solomon, desired to emphasize this truth so much that he referenced “the fear of the Lord” fourteen times in Proverbs– he “says it a lot so it won’t be forgot!”

If you think logically, my friend, it makes good sense.  For our sanctification, God predestined the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of His Son that YOUR sin would no longer have power over YOU.  But in order to capitalize on His plan, we must remain focused respectfully on HIM!

Now, you’re probably asking, “how, exactly, do we do this?”  Here are three methods that I have personally found effective:

First, we must immerse ourselves in God’s Word.  The fear of the Lord is best defined as “a recognizing of what God has done and a realizing of what He may very well do-for you, or even to you!”  This recognizing and realizing is actually a reverencing of Him. When we immerse ourselves in God’s word, we experience revelation of His magnificence.  As we see His character and authority through the events and teaching of Scripture, our hearts will be drawn to have a proper reverence toward Him.

Secondly, we must emulate David’s prayer found in Psalm 86:11, “Teach me thy way, O Lord…unite my heart to fear thy name.”  In other words, we must beseech the Lord to connect our hearts (mind, will & emotions) to His, thus developing fear of His name.   God desires to reveal Himself to us and align our hearts to His character.  I can assure you, friend, this prayer He longs to hear that He may soon answer!

Lastly, we must live moment by moment IN God’s presence.  When we overlook that God’s attending our daily schedule with us, we are not living in TRUE reality.  We must cultivate a mindset that is ever aware of His omnipresence.  This mindset will certainly lend to a healthy and regular reset of our fear of the Lord button, so to speak.

So we can conclude that when we live with a perpetual reverence of God’s ability to render according to every man’s work, we will most certainly depart from evil.  Conversely, if we fear the ramifications of our evil deeds and make it our daily meditations, we will most often create a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, that will inevitably lead us back into our designer desires at the hands of our designer devils.

My friend, we have no choice but to fear something; don’t be a slave to evil, rather, depart from it-How?  Count all as LOSS, Focus on the CROSS and Fear The BOSS!!!