Growing in the Fear of God

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Reformed, Study, Jesus, Preaching, Christianity, Scripture, Spirit, Bible, Holy, Theology, Christian, God, Teaching

4.8 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The fear of God is the heart and soul of Christian holiness. How do we grow in delightful reverence for the Lord? Today, Michael Reeves shows how cultivating awe-filled adoration begins in the heart.

Request Michael Reeves’ teaching series The Fear of the Lord on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, with your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3910/donate

Meet Today’s Teacher:

Michael Reeves is president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in the United Kingdom. He is the featured teacher for the Ligonier teaching series The English Reformation and the Puritans. He is author of many books, including The Unquenchable Flame, Delighting in the Trinity, and Rejoice and Tremble.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Only the preaching of Christ can turn a heart to desire righteousness and fear God with a loving,
0:10.0	trembling, filial adoration.
0:18.0	Hearing Michael Reeves described the right fear of God over the past two days leaves me wondering,
0:25.2	how do I grow in this fear? This delight-filled, joy-filled, adoration-filled fear? Is that what
0:32.2	you've been asking as well? Well, that's what we'll hear about today on this Wednesday edition
0:37.3	of renewing Your Mind.
0:38.3	There is so much to contemplate in this series, so I do encourage you to request the series and its study guide by giving a donation in support of renewing your mind at Renewing Your Mind.org.
0:50.3	We'll send you the DVD set and unlock the series in the Ligonier app so you can keep listening
0:56.4	and studying as soon as your donation is processed.
1:00.0	Well, to answer today's question, here's Dr. Reeves on growing in the fear of the Lord.
1:07.6	Well, having got something of a sense of what the fear of God is, how can we grow ourselves in this right fear of the Lord?
1:18.6	How can we grow?
1:20.6	For the fear of the Lord is not a state of mind you can guarantee with five easy steps.
1:26.6	It's not something that can be acquired with simple
1:29.5	self-effort. Actually, the danger of using how-to language is that we can shift our focus from
1:38.0	the one who is the fear, himself, shift our focus from him to ourselves, to our
1:49.0	selves, to our activities, therefore losing all possibility of genuine fear.
1:55.0	We can so easily get caught up in the externals, the steps we're following, the habits we're working at. We can look at
2:02.9	our external performance and think that our pious habits are outward displays of reverence equal
2:10.0	the fear of God when in reality we're faking it and missing the vital reality. The fear of God is the heartbeat of our new life
2:23.4	in Christ. It is the soul of godliness. And so it is not the mere sum of certain behaviors.
2:32.8	It is not something that can be acquired with simple self-effort.
	...

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