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GOD can do anything, absolutely ANYTHING. He can move a mountain, bring people back to life after death like Lazarus (John 11), heal anyone and everyone — even those plagued from legions of demons, from leprosy, from any and all illnesses we can think of, turn sorrow and tears from deep grief into joy and laughter in a heartbeat, hear our thoughts and prayers around the clock at any time and He does all this simultaneously on a huge scale, even a monumental scale, an impossible scale in the millions upon billions and trillions. Yet nothing — NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING is impossible for God (Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27 and Luke 18:27). He designed, made and created us in all our complexities as penned by King David under divine inspiration (Psalm 139), rescued me from myself, gave me new life after baptism, and forgave our sins upon repentance as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). We must keep these things close in our hearts and minds while always profoundly thankful and grateful in order to promote loving obedience to His laws and commandments. As we may realise, God in His perfect wisdom lovingly tells us "If you love Me, keep my commandments" in John 14:15.
Job 42:2 says "I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You". This is part of Job's reply to God after absorbing on a much deeper level how great his Creator is while completely submitting to God's power. Job describes his ignorance of not really seeing God in Job 42 as "things too wonderful for me" even though he lived righteously. Jeremiah 32:17 reveals "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You". Daniel 4:35 informs "All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, 'What have You done'?” Isaiah 40:15 instructs "Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing". Ecclesiastes 3:14 from King Solomon reads "I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him". It is difficult to choose from the many Psalms written by King David, the physical father of Solomon, to give an account of the close relationship they enjoyed — God and David, David and God, during his tumultuous life. Perhaps you will be inspired to read the book of Psalms to find your favourite, if indeed you are able to select just one. Mine has to be Psalm 23, known as the Lord is my Shepherd.
Healthy fear in adoration for our Father GOD is the key if we are studious and practising His way by emulating Jesus Christ's incredible example from the Holy Bible. For some time now it is quite evident that if we are taking great notice of what God says we will do what He says, what He instructs, what He teaches us from His Word. Without a healthy dose of fear which means we give heed, we listen, and we hang off every word of God as if our life depends on it, because it does, then we are at risk of doing what is right in our own eyes. We definitely do not want to be half-hearted because that is not going to get us where we need to be — close to God. God is our God of the impossible and many of us have witnessed miracles, great and impossible things for anyone else to do or let alone even think of, and these have been our treasured faith building moments when we didn't want to go on anymore, when we didn't know what to do, and when we had nowhere else to turn, yielding to Him hoping for an answer. Many times things have been incredibly hard to bear yet God has quashed our doubts and fears when we did not understand why we went through the trials we encountered, by replacing these worries with blessings and answers to our prayers as it is written in John 14:26-27 with supernatural peace via the Helper, God's Holy Spirit. There is nothing else like it out there in this world, for once you have tasted and experienced this peace, then you know exactly what I am talking about.
Proverbs 1:7, 2:1-5, 8:13, 9:10, 14:27, 15:16, 19:23, Job 28:28, Psalms 33:8-9, 33:18-22, and 111:10, provide a small snippet or collection of scriptures to begin with when studying about developing healthy fear in awe of GOD. The Bible provides us with so much more to glean from just like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) on our daily search for knowing God and what we must do in order to know ourselves so that we can become more Christ-like. This is our quest and will be with us for life until maturation and full transformation. This is all very exciting while sobering, wonderful, interesting, incredible and really is miraculous that out of so many people the world over, we have been selected by God to be teachable and to stay this course until our change (Philippians 1:6). Meanwhile we look to God for His help, guidance, counselling, protection, blessings, provision, healing, comfort, peace, love, joy and everything else we need. God will never let us down as we are about to traverse even tougher times ahead for those now who will remain alive. As we consider what the future holds, we draw great comfort from reading our Holy Bibles and the examples provided therein for us to glean from.
There are two miraculous accounts from the Bible which have always gained my attention and fascinated me with further lingering meditation as they are of great comfort due to their happy endings. The first account has a heading in my NKJV Bible of "Elisha and the Widow's Oil". Notice that the word fear is mentioned very early to establish the widow's husband's character. We can read about it in 2 Kings 4:1-7 "A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, 'Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves'. So Elisha said to her, 'What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?' And she said, 'Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil'. Then he said, 'Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbours — empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones'. So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, 'Bring me another vessel'. And he said to her, 'There is not another vessel'. So the oil ceased. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, 'Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest'." Wow, imagine being this widow with the stress of no means to pay any debts and the very real threat of surrendering her children. How loving God is to work through His prophet Elisha to provide a miraculous solution. Wouldn't it be cool to ask God just how many vessels were full of oil? Would it be 153 like the fish caught in John 21:11 or would the number be even greater? The main point is her needs were taken care of fully and with even more besides to live off, as God knows exactly what we need and thinks of everything.
Then there is the second account known as "Elijah and the Widow" in 1 Kings 17:1-16 "And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, 'As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word'. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there'. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you'. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, 'Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink'. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, 'Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand'. So she said, 'As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die'. And Elijah said to her, 'Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ” So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah".
These miraculous wonders show that God specialises in miracles, intervening for His prophets, the faithful people who exercised their healthy fear in great awe and respect for God despite what was before their eyes as in famine, overwhelming debts, lack of rain, and times of severe drought and hardship. The weak and vulnerable such as the widows and orphans know without a shadow of a doubt how God is their Champion of champions declaring that nothing is too hard for Him to bring to pass. Exodus 22:22-23, Psalm 68:5, Psalm 146:9, Deuteronomy 24:19-21, and Proverbs 15:25 are just a few scriptural references to examine on this subject. Our God's specialty is the impossible — there can be no doubt about it, not even a shred. For further study may I suggest clicking on the following link for a split sermon (under half an hour) which has been most instructive and informative for me in my quest for developing Godly fear while traversing the world as in Proverbs 8 https://www.ucg.org/sermons/godly-fear-0