The fear of the Lord. Wow. What a topic!
I have heard all ends of this. I have heard that it means you should literally be shaking with fear when you pray to God. I have heard that it means simply that we have an awe and respect for God but that we shouldn't fear since we are told to go "boldly" before His throne. ...ok....so which is it?
I'm not planning to fully answer that question...it's a HUGE question and many people much smarter than I have not come to a consensus. However I have a few thoughts for you today.
1. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge/wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 says knowledge and Proverbs 9:10 says wisdom. So, we can at least know that, according to the Bible, true knowledge and true wisdom are only gained when we begin with this "fear of the Lord" thing. Ironically, Proverbs 2 says that when we seek after and pursue true wisdom...then we will finally understand the fear of the Lord. I know that seems kind of circular, but it also makes a kind of sense when you think about it. Pursing and working towards wisdom that is from God leads to an understand of the fear of the Lord....which is the actual beginning of wisdom! :o)
2. I stole this next part from here: "The Hebrew verb yare can mean "to fear, to respect, to reverence" and the Hebrew noun yirah usually refers to the fear of God and is viewed as a positive quality. This fear acknowledges God's good intentions...This fear is produced by god's Word and makes a person receptive to wisdom and knowledge." - OK. So this shows a respect/reverence side to "fear of the Lord."
3. A God-fearing person (that is, a person who fears God) will be a more trust-worthy individual. A person who is more likely to keep their word or protect those who need protecting. That is to say, they are living with a reality of God that is as close to accurate as they can and that spurs them to right living. This could be respect as well as a little actual fear. It depends on your heart.
4. God is outside of time and space...and not confined by matter...which means there is no time or place that He isn't always aware of. So, He knows what you are going to do tomorrow and the next day, not because He has seen (past tense) it, but because He is all the time aware of all things that will ever happen in time.... *Mind-blown* That should be an encouragement (no one can kill you before God allows it and no one can stop you from dying once it is your time, etc.) and it should terrify you when you have sin in your heart...see #5 below.
5. Here is where I think that "fear" is the right word. For a person who is a Christian and who follows Jesus Christ and God the Father, he/she ought to be afraid when they intentionally go against what they know that God would have for them. Now, I could go kind of deep with this (prompting of the Spirit, etc.) but I won't. I just will say that if you know God wants you to do something or you know that God wants you to NOT do something, and you deliberately go against that, then you should be afraid.
Now, I do not mean a crippling fear. I mean the kind of fear that recognizes who God is and drives you back to obedience to Him and His truth. You shouldn't run from God because of the fear of the Lord. No, you run TO God because you know there is grace and forgiveness in the Father. However, that fear also keeps it real that we have a responsibility to live a certain way before God. If we aren't, then we need to, in fear, assess ourselves to see what we need to fix.
One simple example. read Galatians 5. The whole chapter would be good, but if you need shorter, just read verses 16-26. There are two lists here. One is the fruit/works of the flesh in verses 19-21 and then the Fruit/works of the Spirit are in 22-23.
All I will say is this. If you call yourself a Christian, and you know who God is and yet this list isn't matching right. That is, you are more often than not showing the works of the flesh and rarely showing the fruit of the Spirit, then a healthy fear of the Lord is something you may need. Because if you know who God is and you fear Him, then you will make these things a priority in your life!
So, I ask myself and I encourage you to ask yourself too. Do I fear God enough? Do we as a Christian culture fear God enough? If the answer for you, as it is for me, is "no" then what do we do? I for one plan to pray and meditate on some verses (like Galatians 5) that will help me to foster that healthy fear that more closely brings me in line with who God wants me to be.
To God be the glory!!!
I have heard all ends of this. I have heard that it means you should literally be shaking with fear when you pray to God. I have heard that it means simply that we have an awe and respect for God but that we shouldn't fear since we are told to go "boldly" before His throne. ...ok....so which is it?
I'm not planning to fully answer that question...it's a HUGE question and many people much smarter than I have not come to a consensus. However I have a few thoughts for you today.
1. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge/wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 says knowledge and Proverbs 9:10 says wisdom. So, we can at least know that, according to the Bible, true knowledge and true wisdom are only gained when we begin with this "fear of the Lord" thing. Ironically, Proverbs 2 says that when we seek after and pursue true wisdom...then we will finally understand the fear of the Lord. I know that seems kind of circular, but it also makes a kind of sense when you think about it. Pursing and working towards wisdom that is from God leads to an understand of the fear of the Lord....which is the actual beginning of wisdom! :o)
2. I stole this next part from here: "The Hebrew verb yare can mean "to fear, to respect, to reverence" and the Hebrew noun yirah usually refers to the fear of God and is viewed as a positive quality. This fear acknowledges God's good intentions...This fear is produced by god's Word and makes a person receptive to wisdom and knowledge." - OK. So this shows a respect/reverence side to "fear of the Lord."
3. A God-fearing person (that is, a person who fears God) will be a more trust-worthy individual. A person who is more likely to keep their word or protect those who need protecting. That is to say, they are living with a reality of God that is as close to accurate as they can and that spurs them to right living. This could be respect as well as a little actual fear. It depends on your heart.
4. God is outside of time and space...and not confined by matter...which means there is no time or place that He isn't always aware of. So, He knows what you are going to do tomorrow and the next day, not because He has seen (past tense) it, but because He is all the time aware of all things that will ever happen in time.... *Mind-blown* That should be an encouragement (no one can kill you before God allows it and no one can stop you from dying once it is your time, etc.) and it should terrify you when you have sin in your heart...see #5 below.
5. Here is where I think that "fear" is the right word. For a person who is a Christian and who follows Jesus Christ and God the Father, he/she ought to be afraid when they intentionally go against what they know that God would have for them. Now, I could go kind of deep with this (prompting of the Spirit, etc.) but I won't. I just will say that if you know God wants you to do something or you know that God wants you to NOT do something, and you deliberately go against that, then you should be afraid.
Now, I do not mean a crippling fear. I mean the kind of fear that recognizes who God is and drives you back to obedience to Him and His truth. You shouldn't run from God because of the fear of the Lord. No, you run TO God because you know there is grace and forgiveness in the Father. However, that fear also keeps it real that we have a responsibility to live a certain way before God. If we aren't, then we need to, in fear, assess ourselves to see what we need to fix.
One simple example. read Galatians 5. The whole chapter would be good, but if you need shorter, just read verses 16-26. There are two lists here. One is the fruit/works of the flesh in verses 19-21 and then the Fruit/works of the Spirit are in 22-23.
All I will say is this. If you call yourself a Christian, and you know who God is and yet this list isn't matching right. That is, you are more often than not showing the works of the flesh and rarely showing the fruit of the Spirit, then a healthy fear of the Lord is something you may need. Because if you know who God is and you fear Him, then you will make these things a priority in your life!
So, I ask myself and I encourage you to ask yourself too. Do I fear God enough? Do we as a Christian culture fear God enough? If the answer for you, as it is for me, is "no" then what do we do? I for one plan to pray and meditate on some verses (like Galatians 5) that will help me to foster that healthy fear that more closely brings me in line with who God wants me to be.
To God be the glory!!!
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