Positioning Yourself to Receive all that God has for Your Life

At the outset of this blog, I want to make it clear that I understand once you receive Jesus into your heart as your personal savior that you are positioning yourself to receive God’s grace, mercy, love & salvation.  If you do or have done an in depth study on the book of Romans, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about. But what these next few blogs are going to be talking about…is receiving God’s blessings for your life.  There are certain things that both you and I have to do to be able to position ourselves to receive all that God has for our lives.

“The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it.” – Proverbs 10:22

The heart of God is to bless you. He wants to increase you.  He wants you to enjoy the abundant life. The more than enough life. He wants you to be able to experience the (Zoe) of God which is his peace, joy & blessings…and like the scripture says ‘without painful toil for it.’

Are you ready to position yourself?

#1. Maintain a Holy Fear of God.

The first thing you and I must do is learn how to maintain a holy fear of God.  We must learn to live a life where we answer to an “audience of one.” We can’t get caught up in pleasing people but we must be caught up in pleasing the one that matters most…God.  Pleasing God will bring conviction in our lives and conviction is the compass that guides our lives.  Do you have a holy fear of God? Meaning a reverence, a respect and a love for God?

This idea was foreign to me when I first came to the Lord because I grew up in disobedience and rebellion.  You might be able to relate with me. But over time…and fast forward over three decades later…I have learned how to value my relationship with God.  When he speaks, I listen.  I listen even to the point that if others are against it…I will still obey.  And I want to encourage you to do the same.  At the end of our lives we will have to stand before God and answer for everything He entrusted us to do…I don’t know about you but I take that very serious. And more than pleasing people…I want to be pleasing to Him. Who are you pleasing?

The good life begins in the fear of God—
Do that and you’ll know the blessing of God.
His Hallelujah lasts forever! (Psalm 111:10 – The Message)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Good sense is shown by everyone who follows God’s guiding principles.
His praise continues forever. (Psalm 111:10 – Living Bible)

We usually approach God with one of the following types of fear:

a.  Bad Fear – In the bible this is referred to as “pachad.” This is a person reacting to something sudden or startling to the point of trembling. This type of fear is synonymous with terror, horror or alarm.  This fear can hold you back and paralyze you from doing things you know you should do. This kind of fear will paralyze or damage your faith.

b. Good Fear – I like how Charles Finney put it.  “It’s an affectionate reverence where God’s sons and daughters…they come into his presence and they humbly bow their hearts, their attitudes, their minds and their lives before a loving father.”

Have you been coming to God that way? The problem is that sometimes we have the wrong perspective of ourselves.  Sometimes we feel that people are putting us down when in reality it’s just God dealing with our pride.  We need conviction and when we don’t have it, we begin to become people that are married to compromise.  It fits into our little world so we keep it.  It’s sad too because some people have had the same bent in their lives for years…they get the victory for a season but then go right back to it later like an old familiar friend. Don’t be like those in the following verse:

For the leaders of my people—
    the Lord’s watchmen, his shepherds—
    are blind and ignorant.
They are like silent watchdogs
    that give no warning when danger comes.
They love to lie around, sleeping and dreaming. (Isaiah 56:10)

“To fear the Lord is to avoid evil.”

What’s your weakness? I want to encourage you today to do something about it.  We all have something.  It could be a bent towards being negative, lust, gossiping, anger, jealously…believe me this list can get pretty long.  But you can’t just ignore it…you gotta do something about it.  Start today by taking a few moments to evaluate your fear of God.  Do you have an awe of God in your life? When God speaks, do you listen and obey?  Have you been wrestling with God in your mind? Whatever it might be, respond the way David did in Psalm 51. Take time today to read that chapter and let God speak to you.  The first step in positioning yourself to receive all that God has for your life is maintaining a Holy Fear of God!