Healthy Fear

The fear of the Lord is something that many Christians have a tough time with. After all, doesn't God want to be our comforter? How could someone we fear comfort us? Fearing God means having such a reverence for Him that it has a great impact on the way we live our lives. The fear of God is respecting Him, obeying Him, submitting to His discipline, and worshipping Him in awe.Believers are not to be scared of God. We have no reason to be scared of Him. We have His promise that nothing can separate us from His love. Some redefine the fear of God for believers to “respecting” Him. While respect is definitely included in the concept of fearing God, there is more to it than that. A biblical fear of God, for the believer, includes understanding how much God hates sin and fearing His judgment on sin—even in the life of a believer.This reverence and awe is exactly what the fear of God means for Christians. This is the motivating factor for us to surrender to the Creator of the Universe.

Proverbs 1:7 declares, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Until we understand who God is and develop a reverential fear of Him, we cannot have true wisdom.

Notice that when you fear the LORD, you haven't arrived at where He ultimately wants you... you've only put yourself in a place from where God can take you the rest of the way. That's something we often forget. How many times have you been worshipping God, even crying for Him, and later thought to yourself that it's great to be where God wants you? But in a way, how would you know? I don't mean that God doesn't want us in church worshipping Him, just that whenever we show him that fear, that respectful awe, we are merely opening ourselves to being led away from where we are to where God wants us ultimately to be, one step at a time.

Something else to notice is that every result of fearing God requires some effort on our part. To continue in knowledge, wisdom, and life, we must continue to fear the LORD. We may have strong strong confidence, but we must still must choose to go into the refuge provided. We may be provided a fountain of life, but we must choose to drink of it. We may be provided instruction, but we must still choose to study. We may be given the ability to keep away from evil, but must choose to keep away from it.

So, now that we know the fear of the LORD, we can begin to delve into Proverbs, the book of Wisdom. I pray that Jesus give you (and me) the wisdom He wants us to have. Well, if we fear the LORD, then we at least have the beginning of it.