When we lack the fear of God, we’ll take Scriptures out of context and begin to build a case for our rebellion, our disobedience, our trust in ourselves, but we are fleeing from God.  Whenever our faith is waning, whenever we’re cold in our spirit, we want to move away because we don’t want to hear certain things that the Scripture has to say to us in these circumstances.  Oh, beloved, we all know this:  when those times come, run to God, not away from Him; amen?  What I mean by running to God is this:  you know what’s out of order in your life.  Repent, turn, and then begin to “seek God with all your heart and you’ll find Him” (Deuteronomy 4:29).  Isn’t that what the Scripture says?  Where is the fear of the Lord?  When you fear God, you run to Him in trouble.  You run to Him in times of fear.  You run to Him in times of having rebellious hearts.

The fear of God keeps us from trying to fix things ourselves, because we are acknowledging Him as great.  He’s the all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful God.  Proverbs says to get your wisdom from God.  “Fear the Lord, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:7).  The wisdom of God, the Word of God, the Law of God–“It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.”  He goes on and says, “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”

In Malachi, the Lord is speaking something that I think is a great practical application of us seeing what the fear of God really is.  The fear of God always manifests in obedience to His commandments.  The fear of God is what initiates the seeking of God.  The fear of God is what causes us to rest in the providence of God.  We are so blessed.  The abundance we have is from God opening the windows of heaven and pouring out blessing that we cannot contain; amen?  Because of this superabundance, we ask ourselves the same question as the rich man who said, “I have all this.  What shall I do?  I know what I’ll do.  I’ll build more and bigger barns” (Luke 12:18); amen?  “I’m going to hoard it up.  I have so much I don’t know what to do with it.”

We’re not at the place what William Randolph Hurst was when his heart began to covet that one painting.  There was a painting, and it was something that he was made aware of.  So, he told his people, “I have to find this thing.”  He commissioned them, and they spent the longest time searching the world, spending all kinds of money, searching for this item and they finally came to give him the report.  He said, “Have you found this yet?”  They said, “Yes, sir.”  He said, “Where did you find it?”  They said, “In one of your warehouses.”  He already owned it.

Or as the question was asked of John Rockefeller, “How much is enough?”  The answer was, “Just a little more.”  He was the first true billionaire.  "Just a little more."  That lives in every one of us because of those Adamic consequences of sin, of lust, of pride, of ambition that dwells in every one of us.