When Fear is Good

PRO 9:10 ESV
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Reverence, awe, and yes, fear.

In the 45 places this Hebrew word yir’ah is used in the old testament, it is always speaking of the fear of God, which is not just reverence, not just awe, but respectful fear of our creator God. It is always mentioned as a fear that should lead to a changed attitude. I think of Godly fear as “conviction under the realization that He is Almighty God, Creator of the Universe”. Yes, all power streams from our God.

But this Godly fear is not the type that paralyzes us or cripples us. That type of fear is typified in the Hebrew word yare’ which is used 314 times in the Old Testament, mainly in places where God is encouraging us to not be afraid.

In fact, Exodus 20:20 uses both of these words in the same verse – demonstrating to us the difference in these two very different concepts that have two Hebrew words, but that we in English have bound together in a single word “fear”.

Exodus 20:20
And Moses said unto the people, Fear [yare’] not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear [yir’ah] may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

And doesn’t this verse unlock the mysteries? Doesn’t it underscore the purpose of Christ?

Didn’t Christ come to tell us that we don’t have to remain where we are? Didn’t He come to call us out of our exile, call us out of our slavery to sin?

Didn’t He come to teach us that we don’t need to be afraid and paralyzed by fear, but that we can be healed and restored, and that what used to be a source of fear, of shame, of guilt – will now be our testimony of the power of God’s mercy and grace?

And isn’t the purpose so that we will sin no more? That we will remember the price paid, and that we will know the type of fear of God that convicts us to live a life of repentance.

Without fear of God, how can you know conviction?

Without conviction, how can you realize repentance?

Without repentance, how dare we claim salvation before Almighty God?

So we are encouraged to fear the Lord in a way that produces action and change in our lives. Otherwise, how can we claim to know the Almighty? How can we claim to have Christ alive in our lives?

Repent.

Christ draws near.

I sound my trumpet, I call to you from the watch tower.

Make yourselves ready, those who would call yourselves children of the living God.

Examine yourselves. Guard your words and hearts, with your hearts, and cry out to the Lord for the change that we need, for the healing and the cleansing and the renewal of our lives that is so desperately needed.

Fall humbly at the feet of the Lord, with the fear of the Lord that gives you understanding and wisdom.

Live as a renewed child of God, or be destroyed as a child of the devil.

1 John 3:10 ESV
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

So who’s your daddy?

Your life is a witness to the truth.

So who’s your daddy?

Do you love your sin, or do you love God?

John 8:44-47 ESV
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

So are you deaf to the truth of the Word of God – using grace as an excuse to continue in your sinful ways?

Do we have any fear of God at all? Are we still rebellious children? Or are we surrendered and saved in a new life?

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