Lacking No Good Thing

"Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Come, my children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Whoever of you loves life
    and desires to see many good days,
keep your tongue from evil
    and your lips from telling lies.
Turn from evil and do good;seek peace and pursue it." ~Psalm 34:8-14

Have you ever thought of praying a passage out loud just to get a feel for it?

This passage above holds so much impact and ideas of how we ought to be living our Christian lives. There has to be some clarity as to how to pursue all of it.

If there is one thing that I get after reading and praying about this passage, it is to seek the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. To fear only Him. To love His teachings and His truth. To do good and shun evil. To seek peace and constantly pursue it.

Life is hard. We have so many things to worry about and to think about, but if we stop and recall the good attributes of God and remember He is the only one we should fear, there really shouldn't be any worries. I would like to share a video, that if you have time to watch (a little over 12 minutes long) I suggest you do. It explains what it means to truly fear the Lord. It helped me better understand how to look at the God of the universe and how to give Him all the glory and praise He deserves. If I truly fear Him, as the Bible consistently states is a good thing, it means I have put all my concerns, cares, and anxieties in one basket and given them over to God. I actually have the right perspective on life. 

A lot of times in the Scripture we are called to fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is what it sounds like. To feel smaller and out of control; to feel threatened. In the case of fearing the Lord, we as human beings are to realize we are not worthy to be in His presence. We are not as holy as He is, therefore we can be crippled by fear. Think of the prophets who came into the presence of the Lord, like Isaiah. We see a man on his face in fear because he knows he's unworthy to be in the presence of God. However, usually the next thing the Lord recites to men like Isaiah is "Fear not..."

Fear not.

Doesn't that sound pretty simple? See, no matter how holy and glorious God is, He still wants us to join Him in his presence. If only we had the right perspective on things, we could honestly say the one thing in our lives that we fear is God himself because of his holiness and righteousness. Yet in His mercy and love, He tells us to "fear not" because he wants us to be more than cowardly sinful people at his presence. He wants people who are willing to serve him and pursue the good things he has to come. Things that will glorify him because he is the holy righteous God who deserves the glory.

In this lifetime, if I could conquer my stronghold of fear, I can only imagine how much more useful I would be for the Lord. If we could, as Christians, just rethink our view of God and the lies that we have believed about Him, how much more effective would we be for him? I'm not saying this to put anyone on a guilt trip, but honestly how much more would we want to serve a holy righteous God who sent his son through a lifetime of sufferings only to die a painful death to bare our sins if we had a right view of him?

I'm a fan of praying Scripture out loud and talking to God about it. Find a passage today, whether it be from your devotions or a passage from Psalm and meditate on it and pray about it. Ask the Lord what it means about Him and about your life today. And never give up seeking after Him.