The whole topic of fearing God has challenged me deeply since researching Scriptures for the post last week.  Wow!  I am just in awe of the God we serve… not only does He command us to fear Him, but He also graciously laid out what fearing Him should look like.  It is truly humbling to see how much goes into fearing Him.  Honestly, its can seem a little overwhelming!  I pray God will continue to challenge and strengthen our hearts as we grow as strong women of God in this area.

As I was looking over the aspects of a God fearing woman, the one I wanted to dig deeper into today is a God fearing woman’s response to evil.  Oddly enough, here we can say a godly woman needs a little hatred!  Yes, a strong word, but in this case, God uses it.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverted mouth, I hate.” Proverbs 8:13

Do we really hate evil?

This is a challenging one.  I think a lot of us can say we hate and are angered by abuse.  When we see totalitarian governments open fire on innocent civilians, when we see reports of an abducted child or news on the sex-trafficking industry rampantly growing in our own country, or perhaps when we hear of gang violence, it is then easy to be ruffled to the very core.  Many of us want to take action: sign our name to petitions, protest, support ministries and organizations making a difference in these areas.  And of course, this is VERY good we have this response!  This is a piece of hated for evil. The only bad thing is that Satan has won a major victory in the lives of the vast majority of Christians by making us believe it is enough to just hate those sins.  All the while we frown on and act against those big issues, we embrace (and actually love) sin close to our hearts.  Secret sins, little sins, or as Jerry Bridges terms then, “respectable sins.”

“all sin without distinction — is lawlessness.”
― Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate

Bowing to God’s declaration of evil

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.” Proverbs 3:7

Thankfully, God has not left us in the dark about what is evil.  The key for us younger women is to learn God’s ways by knowing Him, and know Him intimately.  Jump into Scripture and study it! Make it the mediation of your heart.  Sing it, talk about it, write about it, and speak it to one another!   Another helpful thing is to study Scripture topically and write papers on your finding… You will learn so much this way.  I’ll write an article soon on what this can look like, but basically, when you get a question search Scripture and you will never come back void.  While its important not to take commentaries as solid truth, they are a really helpful resource in digging deeper into God’s Word.  Become SO immersed in truth and just watch as evil just falls away.

…And it all comes back to a beautiful 4 letter word

LOVE.  Can any topic ever end without coming back to this?  We hate violence, because we LOVE life.  We hate child abuse because we LOVE children. We hate adultery because we LOVE biblical marriage.  We need to hate anxiety because we LOVE trusting the Lord.  We need to hate pride because we LOVE humility.

We need to hate sin because we LOVE Jesus.

May God bless you, daughters of God, as you pursue loving your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with all your heart, mind and soul.  For me, this means some personal soul searching and housecleaning in my heart.💕

“Shall we presume on God’s grace by tolerating in ourselves the very sin that nailed Christ to the cross?”
― Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate

Soli Deo Gloria,🌷

Jennifer