Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Have you ever been or heard of a team building seminar where you have to do a trust test? You are partnered up with a team member and you turn your back and fall into the arms of your partner. It is a little scary but you know that if they should fail to catch you, then when it come their turn, then their failure creates all that much more fear as you become the catcher.

Not so with God. God never depends on you to “catch” Him. This testing of trust is all one sided. We have to trust God. God doesn’t have to trust us. There is no assurance in our performance which will build trust in God towards us.

Luke 12:47-48 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

My fear is that we forget so easily that which is committed to us. Grace and mercy and forgiveness is such a large part of our personal experience and in that God is ever faithful. He catches us, but we have no way to build trust but to seek and obey. I for one know that I am not perfect in performance.

What does it take to motivate a man to take God at His Word? Love, fear, promises or do you need a reward?

Isaiah 40:10 Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

I will give you a hint here. We are His reward.

Ephesians 5:2a And walk in love,

Ephesians 5 lists a number of labels of good and bad behavior. Part of me finds labels both good and bad as a hindrance in walking in the love that is Christ in us. I know there are many who insist that calling sin sin is a necessary thing but one aspect if you give a thing a name, it holds a power in the name that is unwarranted and unjustified.

Sin labels make it all that much easier to become like the Pharisee in the temple who said, “Thank God I am not as that sinner.” The outward view of others sin is not only a window to judgment, it has the tendency to allow us to avoid self-examination and the purging of our own sins. Allow yourself to be called pious too many times and you will start to believe yourself worthy of praise.

Psalm 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

This is the last line in Psalms, the last word if you like. Isn’t that a fitting summation for the Psalms?

Ecclesiastes 10:1 Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

We, myself included, have a tendency to avoid reading scriptures like this. They are fair warning. The warnings are just as valuable to us in seeking to be everything God has called us to be. The Lord delivered these warns with purpose and to avoid reading them places us in jeopardy of falling into the folly which the Lord would once again have to pull us out.

Galatians 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Is not the opposite also true? But if ye praise and glorify one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Love never fails.