The fear of God is sometimes misunderstood; it is a reverential awe and worshipful state joined with the intimate love and affection of God our Father for us and a dwelling with a deep and abiding understanding of trust, care, safety, and belonging in Him. Last week we saw the need to prioritize the presence of God and the community of His people, and this week we see the motivation and enabling to do that, as well as the reward and blessing for doing so. What immeasurable joy there is to be held close by the gracious sovereign of the universe! What unending comfort: to be embraced by pure holiness; to be permanently loved by pure righteousness; and rather than our unrighteousness and sinfulness polluting it, as it does in our daily experience, to instead be transformed by it and made unrecognizable—clean to shine as lights in the darkness.

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