Fear does terrible things to us. It can create anxiety over the future. It can prevent us from doing things. And It can reduce our ability to enjoy life. I want us to think about a different kind of fear: Fear of God.
Fear of God is different to being afraid of God. True fear of God is awe and deep respect. This causes us to enjoy and glorify God and motivates us to actions.
Fear of God is the solution to worry over the future. Why? Because we can be sure that God supervises everything that happens to us. (Psalm 34:7)
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, & he delivers them.
Fear of God puts us in the right state of heart and mind to grow in the best way.
( Prov 1:7) ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’
(Prov 9:10) ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’
Wisdom is knowledge correctly applied.
Let’s explore this a bit!
We experience the fear of God as we live our lives in awe of him.
- Awe is an emotion in which dread, honour, devotion and wonder are mingled.
- Awe is a submissive and admiring fear inspired by good authority.
- Awe is fearful respect inspired by a supernatural person––a God.
Jesus is the perfect example of what it is to truly fear God.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him––the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord––And he will delight in the fear of the Lord. (Isa 11: 2-3)
In his humanity Jesus sees God from our perspective and he responds by living in joyful, respectful and loving awe/fear of God
Some people have no fear of God ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes’ (Romans 3:18) These people either don’t believe God exists or they don’t care, or they think if God does exist he isn’t interested in them.
Should we be afraid of God? Adam ignored God then he was afraid and hid from him. (Gen 3:10) We should be afraid of God if we ignore his instructions.
Back to the positive fear of God––‘respectful awe’
Bible commentator John Murray says: ‘The fear of God is the soul of Godliness’
He explains, ‘The fear of God in which Godliness lives is the fear which powerfully produces adoration and love. It’s the fear which is made up of awe, respect, honour, and worship, and all of these on the highest level of activity.
It’s the reflex in our consciousness of the supreme majesty & holiness of God.’
True fear of God keeps us on the right path as we journey through life. True fear of God is more than just a feeling or an attitude, it’s a feeling and attitude that changes our lives in the most wonderful ways.
I must bring in a warning at this point: If we don’t understand the grace of God and his acceptance of us through Jesus we can easily fall into a performance or religious relationship. That’s when doing becomes more important than being.
If we live like that we will see God as a hard taskmaster who distributes punishment and occasional rewards. Our rule for life will be ‘perform or perish.
True fear of God produces trust in God.
We can’t separate trust in God from fear of God. We will trust him only to the extent that we genuinely live in awe of him: The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love (Ps 33:18)
We may not see God doing miracles as he did in the old days, but we can read about them and be amazed: Let all the earth fear the Lord.....For he spoke, and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. (Ps 33:8-11)
How to develop a healthy fear of God
We need to recognise his presence and encounter God through the world the Scriptures and his involvement in our lives These responses should awaken in us the awe, respect, humility and worship that is our right response to our God.
This God of ultimate power not only reveals himself in the world and word.
God appeared in space and time in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus we see God in a man. In Jesus we see true fear of God in a person. We also see the joyful relationship with the creator that comes from truly fearing him.
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