25.September.2026
There is a particular kind of fear that shapes people, over years, without them ever realizing where it came from. Not fear of God. Fear of man.
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. Isaiah 29:13
Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. Read that slowly. God is describing people who think they fear Him, who genuinely believe their reverence is aimed at Him, when in reality they were taught to fear disapproval, taught to fear breaking a rule someone else invented, taught to fear stepping outside a tradition, and all of that got relabeled as fearing God. It is possible to spend a lifetime performing reverence toward something that was never actually God at all.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8
Spoil you. Paul is not describing a minor inconvenience. He is warning that tradition, appearing to be wisdom, can actually rob a person of something valuable. They cannot compromise their direct relationship with Christ, and replace it with rules about Christ instead. The word rudiments there points to basic building blocks, like a child’s first lessons. Traditions of men keep people at that elementary level forever, never graduating into the actual depth of knowing Him, if they allow them to.
This is how inherited fear works. It rarely announces itself as fear. It shows up as certainty about things nobody ever actually checked against scripture. It shows up as discomfort when something familiar gets questioned, even gently. It shows up as measuring your relationship with God by how well you match a tradition, rather than by how well you actually know Him.
I think about how much of what gets called reverence is really just inherited caution, passed down because questioning it felt disrespectful, or dangerous, or unthinkable. However, God never asked for our family’s fear. He asked for relationship, direct, personal, tested against His own Word rather than someone else’s precept.
Whose voice have you actually been trained to fear, His, or the voice of tradition wearing His name?
If you have never made Jesus Christ the Lord oflife to, you can do that right now. Pray this with me:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I confess that I have sinned, and I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose again on the third day. I ask Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. Thank You for saving me.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Make today count and see you tomorrow.
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