As a Christian, dedicated to traveling on the narrow road of the deeper walk with Jesus, one thing always tries to detour me as I press on towards the prize – and that is myself. My old sinful flesh is constantly trying to come along for the ride even though it is an unwelcomed guest.
Why is it we have such a hard time putting to death this old foe? For one thing our old sin nature has been an intimate friend, for many of us, for such a long time, that it is difficult to say good-bye. And secondly, we often fail to realize that the answers we are looking for are staring us right in the face; and they are contained in our old friend – the Bible. And the Holy Scriptures have some very powerful weapons to defeat our arch enemy – sin.
In this devotion I would like to share, perhaps, the greatest verse in all of Scripture for overcoming sin. I believe if we follow the advice in this verse that we can defeat Satan at every turn. (Proverbs 16:6) tells us: “In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the LORD, one departs from evil.” I love what Rowland Croucher shared related to this verse: “Above all, desire to please Christ; dread his disapproval above everything else.”1
This gem of a verse should be memorized by every Christian because it contains the greatest secret, I believe, in all of Scripture for overcoming sin. The concept here is not to be afraid of God but to have a holy reverential awe of Him. The more we reverence God and hallow His name the more we will want to do everything in our power to glorify Him. On the positive side this means to always praise Him for His mighty deeds and on the negative side to not sin. As we read the Bible more and spend time in the presence of Jesus we can’t help but fall more in love with Him. And the more we love Jesus and magnify His name the more we will live a holy life and not want to sin because we love Jesus too much to displease Him.
My friends we need to have a reverential awe of God at all times. When was the last time you stood in awe of God? When was the last time you were genuinely “awe struck” with His majesty, power, might, and dominion? If you have ever visited the Grand Canyon the word awe probably comes to mind because this amazing canyon is simply spectacular in beauty and full of wonder. How much more should our Creator, who made this canyon, deserve our reverential awe for His amazing creative genius and omnipotent power!
Having a reverential awe of Jesus should cause our hearts and minds to bow in worship for who our Savior is and why He deserves our constant praise and adoration. In addition, our love for Him should cause us to never want to do anything that He would disapprove of. Reverential awe should evoke thoughts of intimate love, deep reverence, and holy fear for our Savior. I believe that this will produce the fear of the Lord that (Proverbs 16:6) talks about and greatly reduce our desire to sin.
So, let’s cultivate a holy awe for God by just spending time realizing that He is the sovereign Lord of the universe and yet He calls us His “treasured possession.” We are indeed blessed people to serve a God so awesome who thinks we are awesome too!