I was in my little study off my bedroom, looking through my last two Bibles for a certain little piece of paper I knew I had tucked away in one of them. One that contained words I needed that very moment to restore my soul. (I found it, by the way. and it did what I knew it would) I also found this. from a long time ago – and it ministered to me afresh, just as things of God will no doubt do. I pray you also find ministry among these words.
This is an excerpt from John Piper’s The Pleasures of God:
“Suppose you were exploring an unknown Greenland glacier in the dead of winter. Just as you reach a sheer cliff with a spectacular view of miles of jagged ice and mountains of snow, a terrible storm breaks in. The wind is so strong that the fear rises in your heart that it might blow you over the cliff. But in the midst of the storm you discover a cleft in the ice where you can hide. Here you feel secure. But, even though secure, the awesome might of the storm rages on, and you watch it with a kind of trembling pleasure as it surges out across the distant glaciers. Not everything we call fear vanishes from your heart, only the life-threatening part. There remains the trembling, the awe, the wonder, the feeling that you would never want to tangle with such a storm or be the adversary of such a power.
And so it is with God. The fear of God is what is left of the storm when you have a safe place to watch right in the middle of it. Hope turns fear into a trembling and peaceful wonder; and fear takes everything trivial out of hope and makes it earnest and profound. The terrors of God make the pleasures of His people intense. The fireside fellowship is all the sweeter when the storm is howling outside the cottage. (pages 205-206)
~thank you, Dr. Piper. amen.
Amen indeed.
So grateful you found the original paper you were looking for, and that you found this treasure to share! May He bless you and envelop you with His joy and peace. You are a blessing! Thank you for sharing!!!! Love!mw
Thanks, once again, for sharing! I have to admit, the fear of God is something I’ve never quite understood. I don’t get what it means to fear God and yet go “boldly before His throne.” I just have never understood how those two things could happen at the same time. And I suppose on some level, I never will fully understand it. Just like I will never understand how God can be one and three at the same time, or how Jesus could be 100% God and 100% man at the same time. Ummm, hello, where did you take your math courses?! That’s 200%! That doesn’t work! But somehow it’s true, and He’s God and I’m not (I bet you were pretty sure of that last part already :)) and I believe Him even if I don’t understand how that’s possible. But fearing God? Well, I guess it’s sort of like just realizing what He could do to us if He wanted to!! Thank God, He doesn’t want to!!!!!