“…with reverence and godly fear.”
(Hebrews 12:28)

O that my poor soul may ever be favoured with godly fear in sweet exercise, that my soul may live and serve God with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire and that I may ever be preserved from revenge; for the LORD saith, “Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay.” O what a sweet companion is godly fear: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil.” “Pride, arrogance, and the evil way doth He hate.”. . .“In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence, and His children shall have a place of refuge.”. . . “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.”. . . “The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”. . . “By the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” “The fear of the LORD tendeth to life; and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.”. . . “By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honour, and life.”. . . “Let not thine heart envy sinners; but be thou in the fear of the LORD all day long; for surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”

O my dear LORD, grant me much of this godly fear in exercise in my poor soul, that I may daily be afraid of offending Thee, and that my conscience may be kept very tender. O that I might honour Thee more, love Thee more, and live more to Thy glory! I blush before Thee, and hide my guilty head at my base ingratitude, cursed unbelief, wretched wanderings, hardness of heart, that I have been and still am the subject of, notwithstanding all the loving-kindness and tender mercies which Thou hast bestowed upon one so unworthy. O let Thy grace be sufficient for me, that I may war a good warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil; that I may endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; that the weapons of my warfare may not be carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

John Warburton (1776-1857)