By Jeff Keaton
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Proverbs 9:10
For some time now, I have been making the case that failure to teach children that God is the Creator of all things produces a lack of respect for and fear of God in our children and society at large. I will go so far as to say that even many in the church suffer from this malady.
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me and my siblings was a healthy fear of God. From my earliest days, I knew that God was the ultimate source of authority and power in the universe. I knew that He had set an absolute standard to which we would be held accountable.
I knew that if I were to reject His incredible offer of forgiveness through His Son, Jesus Christ, I would have to pay the full and horrible price for my sins. I knew there was a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. I knew that He wasn’t the man upstairs and that His Holiness was the guarantee of His justice and righteousness. I knew that He is high and lifted up, seated on a magnificent throne, surrounded by millions of beings who worship Him at every moment. We need a revival in our families, churches, and schools when it comes to who God is.
Recently, I was reading through the book of Psalms, and came across some powerful words. Listen to these words in verses 6-9 of chapter 33. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”
Right after stating that He is the one who created all things by the word of His mouth, we are commanded to fear the Lord and stand in awe of Him. “For he spoke and it came to be!” When we recognize God as the Creator of all things, it does something to us. It produces a holy awe and respect for the Lord like nothing else.
Perhaps this is why Satan has made the account of creation a main target of his attacks. If Satan can convince people that God did not create the world, he has then given them every reason to live however they choose. But, when we understand that God literally spoke the world and all its beauty into existence, it produces in us a reverence and great desire to worship this Creator.
When I was a teenager, I was blessed to travel across America for three years in a singing group. One night, we were singing in the mountains of Virginia and were blessed to stay on a farm in the middle of nowhere. We found an old hay wagon and were laying on our backs looking at the night sky full of more visible stars than any of us had ever seen with the naked eye. We began to sing, “Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed: Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art! How great Thou art!”
We were just teenage boys, but God’s awesome presence settled down on us, and we knew that a God who could speak the galaxies into existence was a God to be loved, feared, and adored.
In secularized forms of education, children are never taught to reverence and fear the Lord because they are never taught who He really is and what He has done. Without a proper fear and understanding of the Lord, our children will never surrender their lives to Him, or at best, they will offer Him some small portion of their lives and loyalty. Christian education in the family, church, and school is essential because it instills in the hearts and minds of our children a deep sense of who God is and why He is worthy of our devotion and lives. In verses 18-19 of Psalm 33, we read these words: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.”
God has a special place in His heart for those who fear Him, those who recognize Him for who He really is. As we give our children a proper fear and respect for the Lord, their hope for a wonderful life increases immensely because they will listen to God, follow His direction, and come under His special blessings.
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Jeff Keaton is the founder and chairman of RenewaNation, an organization that promotes a Christian worldview in education. Looking for a follow-up to CHEWV’s reThinking Education? We recommend the practical and inspiring Biblical Worldview available from RenewaNation!