Grace to you & peace from God our Father & the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Alack and Alas!” is July 19’s evening entry from Dr. David Jeremiah’s ‘Walking with God: 365 Daily Devotions’.
"Is not your reverence your confidence?" Job 4:6
Funny how some words go out of style. If you could go back in time and eavesdrop on your grandparents, you might hear them say words like hark, hither, alack, fain, twain, betwixt, mayhap, nigh, and yon. Few people miss those words now, they’ve been replaced by others. But another set of nearly forgotten terms isn’t so expendable: holy, reverence, God-fearing, devout, and piety. How did we manage to lose those words?
The loss of reverence (deep respect for someone or something) is particularly disturbing. We’re to serve God with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28). The Lord told the Israelites, “You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary” in Leviticus 19:30. The psalmist says, “God is.. to be held in reverence by all those around Him” in Psalm 89:7. Proverbs 28:14 says, “Happy is the man who is always reverent.” In Malachi’s day, the Lord demanded, “If I am a Master, where is My reverence?” in Malachi 1:6.
In a world that has forgotten the meaning of the term, let’s “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and reverence” stated in 1 Timothy 2:2.
To end a quote from Samuel D. Robbins, “There is a communion with God, in which the soul feels the presence of the unseen One, in the profound depths of its being, with a vivid distinctness and a Holy reverence, such as no words can describe.”
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
