I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid . . . and I hid myself.
--Genesis 3:10
Perhaps one of the most damaging effects of sin is that it separates us from God and others. In fact, Satan loves nothing more that to try and cut you off from God.
Now, one of the ways he tries to do that is to make you afraid to face God. While you are certainly supposed to fear the Lord, that is not the kind of fear God intends.
The opening chapter of Proverbs says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And that kind of fear is best described as reverent awe.
But Satan tries to tell us we need to be afraid of God…and that we should run from Him, much like when Adam and Eve hid in the garden.
Putting the wrong kind of fear of God in your heart is part of Satan’s plan to trick you into separating yourself from God. But that’s a dangerous position to put yourself in, because you end up running from the protection and love of God and open yourself up to the devil’s attacks.
Have you ever thought about how impossible it is to hide from God? In fact, if you think about it, there’s really no rational reason for running from God. He can see you no matter where you are. And more importantly, He can see your heart.
So it’s not only damaging for you to try and hide from God, but it is also pointless.
Instead of running from God, let me encourage you to run to Him! Don’t separate yourself from the protection and love of the One who knows you and loves you intimately. Fear the Lord, but don’t be afraid of Him.
Learn to live in the reverential fear of God,
but don’t fall into Satan’s trap of being afraid of God.
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.”
Luke 13:26–8
Harry Ironside told the story of the famous agnostic Robert Ingersoll who was known for his opposition to all religion, especially Christianity. Ingersoll announced a lecture in which he would prove that Hell did not exist—that it had been dreamed up by theologians to scare people into doing what they said. According to Ironside, just as Ingersoll was beginning, a drunken man in the audience stood up and called out, “Make it strong, Bob. There’s a lot of us poor fellows depending on you. If you are wrong, we are all lost. So be sure you prove it clear and plain.”
The world does not like to acknowledge the reality of Hell, because they do not want there to be any consequences for living however they like. But no amount of denial can change the reality that those who do not trust Christ as Saviour will spend eternity apart from God. Though Hell was not prepared for man, but for Satan (Matthew 25:41), it is the destination for those who cannot enter Heaven because their sins have not been taken away.
Hell is not metaphorical, but literal. The flames are real. The suffering is real. And the sentence is eternal. The world may not want to think about Hell, but we should. Because we have been spared that awful fate, we should do everything that we can to warn others of the danger of eternity apart from God.
Today’s Growth Principle:
Eternity in torment in Hell is the fate of the lost—and that should motivate us to do all we can to reach them.
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