Does God really expect me to live in fear of Him?
When you hear somebody say, I fear the Lord what comes to mind far as you are concerned? Are you thinking God is looking down from Heaven and is ready to get you for the first thing you do wrong? If you are like me, at one time or another you have been driving along a street or highway and looked into your reviewer mirror after hearing a siren and saw the police or highway patrol car behind you flashing lights come on and suddenly your blood pressure shot up and fear began to grip you because you are thinking, “he’s after me”, only to find out after you pull over, he just kept going. It wasn’t really you that he was after, and now you are relieved. Is that the way God expects us to fear Him”? In general no, that is not what God meant when He said fear the Lord. That is taking it to level of terror and although there is a point that God may allow the fear of Him to get to that point for His sovereign purposes He is working out in a person’s life, in general when the Scripture talks about fearing the Lord, God has something else in view.
If you have a son or daughter that you have raised, one of the first things you teach them is who’s in charge in your house. It’s mom and dad. It is your position as their parent that you want them to respect and reverence. Life is going to be a whole lot easier for them if they listen to you, but if they refuse to honor your position as the parent, there life could get pretty difficult because they will come under your discipline. To fear the Lord is to reverence or respect His position as God. It is to realize that He as God,.. has in His hand my very next breath. It is to respect His position as the Creator of this entire Universe and everything in realizing it all belongs to Him. It is to respect His right to set the standard by which what is right and what is wrong is measured on this earth that He has created, in spite of what society says. It is to respect His right to say what will and won’t go on His planet, this earth and not rebel against it because I don’t like it. We are told over and over and over again in the Scriptures to fear the Lord,
Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him……(Psalms 33:8)
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD….( Deuteronomy 10:12)
“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him….. (Deuteronomy 8:6)
The fear of the LORD prolongs days, But the years of the wicked will be shortened……(Proverbs 10:27)
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding……(Proverbs 9:10)
The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant……(Psalms 25:14)
Beloveth, God expects you and I to fear Him, to have that reverential fear of Him that recognizes He alone is God, and as the God who created all things, He has every right rule over all His creation in the manner He chooses to. We as man, whom He has created may rebel against that in the same way we rebelled against our parents when they set the rules of the house we grew up in, but we didn’t determine the discipline we got for rebelling against those house rules, our parents did. We don’t determine the discipline for rebelling against the Lord in His universe, He does. It paid for us to know what mom and dad said if we wanted to stay out of trouble. In the same way it pays to know what God has said if we want to be at peace with Him. We have peace with Him the Scriptures said through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. The promises of the blessings of God are not to everybody. It is for those who fear Him.
Oh, how great is Your goodness,..Which You have laid up for those who fear You, Which You have prepared for those who trust in You…In the presence of the sons of men!….(Psalms 31:19)
You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD;..He is their help and their shield..(Psalms 115:11)
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting,.On those who fear Him,..And His righteousness to children’s children,…(Psalms 103:17)
The fear of the Lord then, is to live your life in the presence of the Lord. It is to live daily with the knowledge that God sees every thought I have and every deed I do, and to understand that God knows why I did everything I did and said. It is to live with such a reverence for Him that I am not going to just do anything I feel like doing because of that reverence of Him as God my Creator, who I am going to give an account to one day for all I have and have not done while inside this body He has given me to live in while I am on this earth…, His earth. It is to acknowledge that the only way anyone can be forgiven before Him is the way He has said, not what I feel, and that is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who God the Father has committed all judgment to.
The apostle John said he heard a voice from heaven as he was shown things God said were going to happen in the end times, as God brings this world as we know it to an end. He tells us what he heard,
Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”….(Revelation 19:5)
So, did God say you and I are to fear Him? Yes, He did. God actually said that.
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments….(Psalms 112:1)