There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
Isaiah 11:1-3a
The One Step Daily Devotional is intended to provide just one step each day for your journey with God. Every journey requires water breaks. Here is a water break for you.
The mystery of Christ Jesus exists in part in the interplay between the reality that He was fully God and fully man. For example, in the person of Jesus we find the eternal Son of God (unbound by time) who was born as a baby through the womb of a limited, mortal woman at a specific time in history. Fully God and fully man.
Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. How does a limitless, all-knowing being increase in wisdom? Fully God and fully man.
Jesus limited Himself to come to earth to save humanity from the penalty of sin (Philippians 2:4-11). Fully God and fully man.
Understanding this dynamic, we see that the fully God and fully man Jesus in Luke 2:52 feared God. How do we know? Because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God (Proverbs 9:10). Furthermore, Isaiah 11 prophecies about Jesus the Messiah and includes this: And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
Why would Jesus fear God? Was Jesus afraid that God would punish Him for doing wrong in the same way that we sometimes understand fearing God? No. Jesus did no wrong.
The fear of God that Jesus walked in looked like a posture that aligned Him to do nothing and say nothing to distance Himself from God. All that Jesus did and said was done to please His Father (John 8:29). Jesus went so far as to only say what His Father in Heaven said (John 12:49-50) and only did what He saw His Father in Heaven do (John 5:19).
So how did Jesus fear God? He feared God in the same way that we should.
Fear Defined: a heightened sense of awareness to the dynamic of relationship between two beings or things understanding the supreme superiority of the one over the other to impact the other’s future in a real and powerful way.*
Jesus walked His life continually aware of how His words and actions impacted His relational proximity (sense of closeness or distance) to God the Father. He understood that His future was completely and solely in God the Father’s hands and no one else’s.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to recognize that your future is completely and solely in God’s hands. Perhaps today God wants you to make decisions through the filter of, “how will this impact my relational proximity to God?” Maybe today God wants you to fear Him.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.
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*Gilmore, Benjamin. Fear, No More: Fear God Evermore. Bedford: Burkhart Books. 2019.