Love, Fear, Trust…

The language of love, trust, fear, hope, seeking, serving- terms describing a relationship to the true God- is continually utilized in the Bible to describe our false loves, false trusts, false fears, false hopes, false pursuits, false masters. – (David Powlison writing in Idols of the Heart and “Vanity Fair,” Journal of Biblical Counseling, 13:2, p.36)

Asking myself what I love, fear, and trust can give me great insight into what false gods I serve. God deserves and requires all my trust, love, and fear. These verbs describe the language of worship. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37). Trust in the Lord with all your heart… (Proverbs 3:5). Fear the Lord, you his saints… (Ps 34:9). When I love myself above God and others, I make an idol. This idol will be a cruel master to me. It will come with stress, anxiety, fear, anger, frustration and lead to death.

Take for example my trust in my own abilities to get me through law school exams. I become anxious, fearing that I would fail an exam and believing that a life of academic failure would not be worth living. I have placed my hopes in my own abilities and in the success that comes with academic achievement. I fear tomorrow, believing that I must fend for myself. I fear my professors, surmising that they are out to get me and destroy me. I fear that without education, I would not have all I need to live since I would not be able to make good money. I fear what others will think of me if I fail.

Other times, when I am not afraid, I become prideful, believing that it is by my own hand that I have achieved something. I love myself and seek my own comforts. What foolishness! God is opposed to the proud.

I must be careful that my passion for the Lord is not consumed by my love, fear, and trust of idols. Scriptures provide an alternative to ungodly fear and pride. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him (Luke 12:4-5)! With a fear of the Lord, what else shall I fear? What can man do to me?!

If I hope in the Lord and in His provision (2 Peter 1:3), I would not hope in paper– an academic degree or in currency that burns, in my abilities, or in the approval of others. I pray that we would love, fear, and trust the Holy One who is worthy of such reverence. To God alone be glory.