God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Christians can be and ought to be content with the simple necessities of life… First, when you have God near you and for you, you don’t need extra money or extra things to give you peace and security… God is always better than gold… Second, we can be content with the simplicity because the deepest, most satisfying delights God gives us through creation are free gifts from nature and from loving relationships with people. After your basic needs are met, accumulated money begins to diminish your capacity for these pleasures rather than increase them. Buying things contributes absolutely nothing to the heart’s capacity for joy… Third, we should be content with the simple necessities of life because we could invest the extra we make for what really counts (God’s kingdom).
Slave-dread, the wrong type of fear, does not motivate obedience. It causes us to run away from God… Those with slave-dread fear draw back from God. They have no conviction that He is good, that He rewards those who seek Him, or that He has their best interests at heart. All they see is His holiness, His severity, and His hatred of sin, and they run the other way. By contrast son-fear motivates us to pursue God… Those who fear Him as sons obey God and keep His commandments.
