G- “The church then had peace…. and it grew in strength and numbers. The believers were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.”Acts 9:31

R-The Fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, hmmm. Sounds kinda like an oxymoron to me. How do I walk in both fear and comfort at the same time. Well here is my take on it. Fear of the Lord means that we respect His awesome power and strive to do what is right in His sight. In the case of Acts9:31 I firmly believe that it is speaking of outreach. the believers had a healthy fear of the Lord and because of it they preached the gospel. The comfort of the Holy Spirit was there to encourage them along in this and give them peace after the time of intense persecution they had just suffered(and the times that were to come still). I think this tell us something about why we preach gospel. We preach not beacuse it seems like it will be a good time for it. We preach the gospel because that is what the Lord’s command to us was before he ascended to heaven. Whether it is a good time or not our fear of the Lord is what drives us to do this. The Comfort of the Holy Spirit is what will keep us going when the times get rough and it seems difficult, or it feels like noone is listening, or we face persecution.

If we want to see the Gospel continue to be spread then we must learn to walk in Fear and Comfot at the same time.

O-Oh Lord, Let me learn to walk in the fear of You. let that desire to do your will completely consume me.  Let me be a man who fears the Lord. As I step out in that fear to preach your word to this world give me the comfort of your spirit and the peace of knowing that I am doing your will.

W- As I am learning almost daily, I need to be out in the world preach the GREAT NEWS to people. I need the fear of the Lord to be my motivator to get out there.

THink about it!