What Does it Mean to Fear God?

 My daily Bible reading has me in Proverbs today where we come upon yet another verse about “fear of the Lord.”  That actual phrase appears 25 times in the Bible but if you open it up to the words of “fear God”, or other phrases that refer to the same thing, the count goes up to as many as 300!

That tells us that we can be certain that fearing God with our awe and respect is vitally important in our relationship with our Creator.  Remembering that we are tiny, little, sinful and wretched, frail human beings and God is the Creator of us and everything around us, is a good starting point on fearing God.

What’s wrong with America today and why does there seem to be so much mayhem, lawlessness and delusional thinking happening here?

Answer;  ask yourself how many Americans woke up today and started their day off with prayers to God and live their days out maintaining a healthy fear of the Lord?  Not many.

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A good, healthy fear of God has a noticeable impact on your life. It affects your view of God and of yourself. There are a few key ways that your view of God changes when you have a healthy fear of Him:

1. Your view of God’s trustworthiness grows.

Recognizing God’s power and might leads to increased trust in Him. God makes a lot of promises in the Bible, and you can trust Him to fulfill them because He has the power to ensure they happen.

2. You see God as more worthy of your worship.

A healthy fear of God leads to a deeper level of worship. Recognizing His power and holiness naturally leads to praise. In the same way you can’t help but be amazed at massive mountains or expansive ocean views, the awe and power of God motivates wonder and worship.

Your view of yourself changes in some powerful ways as well.

3. Fear of God leads to humility.

As understanding of God’s power and magnitude grows, so does recognition of your own lack of power and magnitude. It is humbling to realize how much smarter, wiser, bigger and more powerful God is than you could ever hope to be.

4. Fear of God reduces anxiety.

Anxiety often comes from feeling out of control in life. A healthy fear of God allows you to recognize that God has always been the one in control. It allows you to turn over your fears of losing control to Him and trust He can handle things.

The Bible is clear when it comes to the fear of God. It’s the natural and right response to the power of God. But it is also clear that the wrong kind of fear is unhealthy. When fear is properly applied, it leads to some powerful changes.

https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/fear-god.html