Healthy Fear

Last week I touched upon the subject of fear and how the Bible tells us there is no fear in God and that perfect love cast out all fear. I thought the perfect follow-up to that blog would be on the one thing we are supposed to fear. God.

Unfortunately, it's the one thing or person we don't often thing about when it comes to be afraid or fearful. At times we've been afraid of just about everything on the planet from the dark to the IRS, but the Bible is very clear to whom we should fear. Let me share some passages and then share my thoughts.

"The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them."
"Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him."
"Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD."
Psalm 34:7,9,11

The Hebrew word in these texts is yare and it means to revere, to be afraid and the adjective for the word means to be timid or anxious. We have two types of fear being described hear. The first is the anticipation of getting in trouble if we do something wrong and number two is positive feeling of reverance for God.

Don't we all remember the first kind of fear, especially when we were kids. We do something we know we're not supposed to do and of course it leads to something breaking. (Mom always said, "Don't play ball in the house.") Sorry, a little Brady Bunch humor. We wait with great trepidation for our parents to find out and how bad a whooping we're going to get. The fear in us can be overwhelming.

The second fear is where I like to be all the time, but much of the time it comes over me when I go to church on the weekends and the flood of reverance for God comes over me that it puts me in a position where all I can do is worship Him. It's where God wants me all the time. "Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." Psalm 33:8.

Can you imagine how much better this earth would be if we all took time to stand in awe of the Creator of the universe? I know when I pray I try to acknowledge God for His goodness, His faithfulness, His creation, but often I forget and get right to my needs and my desires. I need to remember that while God is okay with me "cutting to the chase" I can't forget my reverance for Him.

I love the fact God desires a personal relationship with me, but I also know that it's good for me to live my life with the desire to please my heavenly Father out of fear, a healthy fear. A fear that says I know I can't earn my way to heaven, but one that gives me the desire to be obedient because I know the consequences for disobediance are unhealthy.

So many in our world live with no fear of God and consequently they live like their choices and actions are not accountable to anyone. Integrity is a lost virtue because people only own up to something when they're caught and even then they are full of excuses.

Over twenty times, the Psalms refer to the phrase "to those who fear him." Here is a short list of the promises of God for "those who fear him." He promises honor, goodness, his confidence, his angels, his eyes over us, salvation, his love and compassion and that's just in the Psalms. And this is all because we have a healthy fear of Him.

I can't wait to stand in awe of Him today. Amen.