Fearing God (Part 1)

So, as mentioned in the previous note, fearing God is essential for gaining wisdom, and becoming stronger in the faith, because it is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10, Psalm 111:10). In that sense, you can’t have wisdom (godly, biblical wisdom) unless you fear God.

Fearing God does not mean being scared of Him, because we as believers have no reason to be scared of Him. If you are in Christ (if you are truly saved), then your salvation is sealed, your inheritance is guaranteed, (Ephesians 1:13-14) and you will never be cast out it (John 6:37-39). And, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38-39). Additionally, God works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28-29). So, again, we have nothing to be afraid of. We are told not even to be afraid of God’s wrath on unbelievers (that which He will pour out on Judgment Day, sending them to eternal torture in Hell) because of the confidence we have in Him. (Proverbs 3:25-26).

Fearing God is basically having a reverence of Him. It means not only respecting Him, but honoring Him by obeying and submitting to Him and standing in awe of Him.

The Book of Proverbs, which is where I've gathered much of the content of this note from, offers a lot of advice and wisdom about fearing God. Fearing the Lord (and hence finding wisdom) does not come easy. It takes a bit of work – Proverbs 2 likens it to searching for a treasure. The notion of “finding” wisdom is also present in Proverbs 3:13. I, having recently begun to truly fear the Lord, can attest to this – it really does feel like you’ve “found it”, and almost does feel like finding a treasure. With that said, again, fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so I definitely wouldn’t consider myself wise. The journey of finding wisdom and becoming wise takes a lifetime. That's why we ought to give the wise, old godly leaders the utmost respect., and seek to learn from them. Of course, there will never be anyone wise enough to be perfectly moral, or to know everything. In fact, even in eternity we won’t know everything. Only God knows and will know everything. Anyways, back to wisdom. You’ve got to pray for it, ask for it, and receive God’s word. (Proverbs 2:1-5). In the process, you may become humiliated. This is because you may realize that certain things you once believed to be true are not true at all (and by the way, I’m speaking to Christians here, not those outside the faith), once you come to an understanding of what God’s word truly says. There is a lot of false teaching out there, and it is easy to be deceived. More (probably a lot more) on this later.

Anyways, the humility associated with understanding God’s word correctly (which, I would say is the essence of truly fearing God) leads to honor and riches in life (Proverbs 15:33, 22:4). Fearing God not only leads to life (good life) (Proverbs 19:23), it is the fountain of life (Proverbs 14:27). By fearing God, we are turning away from evil (Proverbs 16:6, 14:27). Fearing the Lord brings satisfaction, and safety from harm (Proverbs 19:23).