In late September of 1983 I prayed for the fear of the Lord and God answered. Here are the details.

I was divorced. I decided that I had to live my life according to the Bible, possibly more completely than I had ever witnessed. I had begun dating a young lady and had reached a point in my life where I consciously wanted nothing more than for her to love me. I would have given up my job and every thing I had. Nothing else mattered. In the midst of this a co-worker loaned me a tape on fear of the Lord by Joy Dawson. She described the benefits of fear of the Lord and it was clear this was something I needed to pray for. So I did. Ironically I found it much easier to believe that God would answer the prayer for fear of the Lord than any other prayer I might ask.

Within a week of my prayer the young lady invited another guy to an outing. I was devastated and, if that wasn’t enough, I got sick with a cold and sore throat and didn’t see her for the next couple of days. Suicide crossed my mind as did having myself committed. Somewhere in the midst of my pain I found myself talking to God. In my thoughts I heard him speaking to me.

“I didn’t make you sick. I took my hand of protection from you and allowed Satan to make you sick. He made you sick in an attempt to destroy you. I protected you from destroying your relationship with the young lady and then destroying yourself. If you take one more step living your life your way instead of being led by me you will destroy yourself.”

On my knees and crying out I answered, “Whatever you want me to do I’ll do it.”

Again in my thoughts I heard him, “Will you give her up?”

The thing I wanted most - the only thing I really wanted. I didn’t understand because he had just said he had protected me from destroying the relationship. I thought of Abraham and Isaac. “I don’t understand. You just told me that you protected me from destroying the relationship. But I have to be able to trust that you will never hurt me. Yes, I will.”

My prayer for fear of the Lord had been answered and it had saved my life.