"With whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them." ~2 Kings 17:35, KJV
This is a different kind of fear than the fear that will be and has usually been talked about. This is fear of gods - the actual meaning is closer to honor than anything else. (In fact, reading all of the other versions reveals that they think it means respect too.) But still, it is fear, and since we are working on overcoming fear, I want to take a look at this piece of the story as well.
Other gods are known as idols. An idol can be ANYTHING - if it is more important to you than God, it is an idol. We are not to fear, be afraid of the power of, or honor idols. God must always be our number one priority. American idol, sports idols, celebrities, friends, iPods, the Internet, anything and anyone can be considered an idol. We can't let these things control us. They must not be allowed to have any control in our lives, they cannot dictate anything that we do, or else we become enslaved to them and then are stuck in sin. Jesus died to separate us from sin, He died to free us from these things, we must not run so quickly right back to them.
We don't need to be afraid of these things controlling us, as long as our focus is on God. But we do have to watch our hearts and make sure our focus IS on God... or else we might get in as bad of a mess as the Israelites did time and again in the Bible. Don't be afraid of the power of other "gods"; they can't touch you if you're in the right with God.
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