Fearing the Lord

We find dozens of references in both the Old and New Testament about fearing God. This has led me into one of my famous deep thinking tasks that consumes me for days. If you don’t know about these bouts that I get myself into, just ask my wife and she’ll be glad to tell you all about them. 

I kept asking myself this question. If God is so loving and so kind, why is there such emphasis on fearing Him? We all know what fear is, but we all have a different response to fear. For some, fear is paralyzing. For others it results in a fight, and some choose to run and hide from fear. Does God want us to be paralyzed by His power? Does he want us to fight with Him? Does he want us to run and hide from Him?

We’ve all probably heard the saying that the Kingdom of God is upside down, meaning that oftentimes we find that things are opposite of what humanity thinks it should be. Frequently we find what I call surface meaning in scripture where what we read makes general sense upon skimming over it. However, when we let the Spirit take over and the Word itself, the Logos, becomes alive we find ourselves in awe of just how deep into our hearts the Living Word digs. 

The fear of God opens up another door into our identity of whom we were meant to be. God knows that all of humanity experiences fear and that our response is more often than not a radical response. Look around at our culture today. Fear is taking over the world. Fear of failure. Fear of social status. Fear of missing out. Fear of losing what’s close to us. Fear itself has turned into a weapon within our world.

Perhaps what God is telling us is that the only rational fear we should have within humanity is that of losing our identity with God Himself. When we fear only God, he literally crushes all other irrational fear in our lives. God is so powerful, so just, and so full of love that when we focus all of our fear on Him alone, fear itself ceases to exist outside of the fear of God Himself.

What does this do for our identity in Christ? 

It makes us dig deeper into multiple facets like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The fear of God extends and deepens our relationship with Him, it kicks open the door to our likeness with Christ and our faith in Him, and it reveals the Holy Spirit within us through the very fruits that we are called to live by. 

I guess this is why we call it an upside down Kingdom. In the Kingdom of God, the same fear that paralyzes us makes us take action. The same fear that makes us fight, makes us love. And the same fear that makes us hide calls us out into the world to see Jesus and reflect His image to others.