2 days ago8 min read

Why Should We Fear God? What the Bible Says About the Fear of God.

In today's episode, we will be going over the fear of God, what it means, and why it's important, and I will pair this with scripture and prayer. So a few weeks ago I went into what it means to be in awe of God. Last week we went over fear and anxiety and how fear is a liar. I've been telling you since we went over what it means to be in awe of God that I was going to designate an episode on the fear of God, so that's what we're doing today. I feel like a lot of people get confused about what the fear of God means, and it does go hand in hand with the awe of God, but I wanted to do two separate episodes.

First I want to say a quick prayer: "LORD, I pray that you be with every person reading this right now. I pray that you guide and protect us, and I pray that you open up our eyes to see the truth of your words, and to be able to know the truth, discern the truth, and live by the truth. I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to get out of this episode, they receive it and they implement it in their daily lives. LORD, use me as a vessel for your work. Holy Spirit, please move me to do the will of God the Father through every aspect of my life, and give me the words to speak. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."

All right, so first I just want to go into what fear of God means, and I just googled this, so I'm going to tell you the definitions. There are a couple of different ones that I saw whenever I Googled it. So the first one says: "A humble recognition of God's holiness and grace. A response of awe, reverence, and worship." It can also be described as an "awareness of one's dependence on God's mercy.'

So fear of God is not being afraid to do things or not do things because you feel like you're gonna get punished or you feel like God is going to disown you or you're no longer gonna be saved as you do certain things, and that's how I felt when I was younger. I was so afraid of doing certain things and whenever I did them, I would try to hide from God and I would try to run, and I just felt so full of shame and guilt. We know that shame and guilt are just tactics of the enemy to try and get us not to be close to God. That's what the enemy wants, for us to try and run away or not want us to have that relationship with God.

Having true fear of the Lord is not being afraid to do certain things. Yeah, we don't want to do certain things as believers of Jesus Christ because there's a certain way that we can see demonstrated in how Jesus lived his life of how we should also try and live our lives. Now, of course, we're sinners, we're going to make mistakes, and we're not gonna do everything perfectly. The only person that ever lived a perfect life is Jesus Christ. There are certain things as believers of Jesus Christ that we have to deny our flesh, pick up our cross, and follow Him every day. But that doesn't mean that we're afraid of doing things because we're afraid that God isn't going to love us anymore. If you've read the Bible, then you know that God is good, His mercy endures forever, He is always going to love us, and there's nothing that can make Him not love us.

NOW LET'S GET INTO SOME SCRIPTURE:

"For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." -Psalm 100:5

"The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, oh LORD, your saints will extol you." -Psalm 145:8-10

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

-Psalm 118:29

"For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the Lord." -Psalm 117:2

So we know that the LORD's love endures forever and He's good, faithful, merciful, and gracious. So many people will say, "Why would you fear a God like that?" Fear of God is not being afraid of doing things or trying to hide your face from God whenever you do things wrong. Fear of God is being humble and recognizing that He is good, that He's mighty and wonderful, and He's our creator. Life without God is not worth living.

Whenever I started having a closer relationship with Christ, I started looking at things a lot differently when it comes to the fear of God. I started recognizing how amazing God is and how I do not want to live life without Him. The only thing I'm afraid of is not having that close relationship with Christ and not having that mercy, grace, and love from Him, because life without God, life living in the darkness, is not worth it. I've tried doing that. I've been deep down in the darkness. If you've read any of my past episodes, you know I've been deep in the darkness and it is not worth it. Now that I've seen the light and I've tasted the goodness of God, the thing that I'm afraid of is not having that relationship with him, and not having that light in my life. I know because I am saved by Jesus Christ, that I have eternal life in heaven. I'm going to seek every single day to deny my flesh, pick up my cross, and follow Jesus, because I know a better way of life now and my life has been changed.

God is our Abba Father, and it's so important for us to know that we depend on His mercy. We don't have to be afraid of what He's going to do or try and hide ourselves from Him, but we do depend on Him because life is not worth living without Him. Life with God is incredible and we have eternal life in heaven when we are saved by Jesus Christ. Jesus changes us. He is faithful, He keeps good on His promises, and He takes care of us. We have to make sure that we are in awe of God, just like I spoke in that episode of being in awe of God, if you haven't checked that out make sure you go and check that one out next. We have to have that recognition of His holiness, and grace, and just worship God. He is the most incredible.

So should we have an irrational fear of not wanting to be close to God because we're afraid of what if we make a mistake? What if we do something horrible and He's never gonna love us again? No, we should not have that fear because he loves us so much. There's nothing that we can do to make Him love us less. There's nothing that we can do to make Him love us more. God loves us a hundred percent right now. He loves us fully and He just desires and wants a relationship with us. So the only fear we should have is fear of not being close to Him and experiencing that true peace, mercy, grace, and love that only comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Here are some scriptures about the fear of God:

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." -Proverbs 9:10

"Do not be wise in your own ways; fear the Lord and shun evil."

-Proverbs 3:7

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise." -Psalm 111:10

"His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation." -Luke 1:50

So having that fear, having that awe and humble recognition of God's holiness and His mercy, is us coming to him with all of our hearts and wanting to have that relationship with him. When we do make mistakes, we ask for forgiveness and seek to be close to God, talk to Him, constantly communicate with Him, worship Him, and realize that He is greater than anything. He is the greatest. He is the almighty. He is the most powerful, most wonderful, and He's our creator. God is our Abba father. He created us, He loves us, and He just wants a closer relationship with us.

So I hope this episode helped you to realize what the fear of God is. It's important to fear the Lord, but fearing the Lord isn't us trying to run away from him or being afraid of doing certain things or not doing certain things, or just being scared of God. The fear of the Lord is having that humble recognition and awe of God. It is worshiping him, knowing that we depend on His mercy, grace, love, and that we are his children, and wanting to have that close relationship with him. So that's it for today's episode. Come back next week for an episode about not going back to Egypt.

I love you guys so much.

Never forget to choose faith over fear.

-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)

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