Devotional Messages

The Fear of God

We read in today's Psalm that "the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him". Many believers struggle with the notion of fearing God - while Jesus encouraged us to pray to "Our Father in Heaven" (Matthew 6:9ff.) and Paul has assured us that through the Spirit, we cry "Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15), the Bible repeatedly asserts the place of a fear of God in the life of a believer.

Proverbs 9:10 reads: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom"; Ecclesiastes 12:13 concludes that we must "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man"; and 1 Peter 2:17 tells us that the proper respect we should give to God is to fear Him: "Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king."

The problem with the word fear that these believers usually have is the association of fear with distrust - taking fear to mean that they must be afraid of God. But the Bible does not encourage this view, rather a 'reverential awe' seems to be the applied meaning. When Abraham is prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to the Lord (Gen.22), God responds: "Do not lay a hand on the boy ... Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Abraham was not afraid that God would 'strike him down' if he didn't offer his son; rather, he trusted God's power and out of devotion to Him, was prepared to follow His directions even if it would cost him dearly.

So should be the fear of God in believers, for God is trustworthy and true, loving and merciful, gracious and kind. For a believer to fear God, is to acknowledge His authority, power, love and trustworthiness. For a believer to be afraid of God, is for that believer to acknowledge His power and maybe His authority, but certainly not His love or trustworthiness - in fact it is hard to imagine a believer afraid of God, for if they fear Him in this way, they cannot understand the assuredness of salvation through Christ.

Further, a believer's fear of God should lead them to worshipping Him. For example, I quite enjoy the study of astronomy, and the enjoyment, I have found, comes from attempting to comprehend the "astronomical" proportions of the things we study: the size of, and the distances between stars; the formation of galaxies, the possibility of black holes, the existence of dark matter, the inner-workings of a star gone 'supernova' - as a Christian I study this and come to a point where I see that God has created all of this for us, and as part of "us", for me. Such power as shown in the creation of the universe led me to a state of awe, and a realisation of the glory of God.

It remains that non-believers have a reason to fear God as well: as a righteous judge those who are unrighteous will be punished by Him... Praise God that through Christ we have been made righteous!

Reflect on the things in your life which lead you to an appropriate fear of God, and praise God for these.