Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? One thing that assures a life of security, bounty and fruitfulness. I believe it is true, and I am in good company. Look at what Solomon–the wisest man who ever lived said after his various attempts at figuring out life:
Let us hear the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
It is often said that Scripture says ‘fear not’ 365 times–once for every day of the year. I can’t document that for you, but I can tell you–thanks to my precious E-Sword–that the KJV of the Bible has the word fear in 385 verses. The bulk of the usage is in the Old Testament but 84 verses mention fear in the New Testament.
The gist of all that is this: we have two choices in life: fear God or fear everything else. I’m not even going to bother with talking about the other fears, I want to share some of the awesome things I found about FEARING GOD!
By the way, the roots of the word for fear in the Bible
speak of reverence, awe and trembling.
That helps us understand how in Scripture FEAR OF GOD is all of these things:
- Governing force for actions.
- Foundation for life and leadership.
- Purpose of testing.
- Source of deliverance and power.
- Command of God.
- Desire of God.
- For our good.
- Purpose of ordinances, studying of law, obedience, rebuke.
- To be taught, learned and lived.
- Response to seeing God.
- Aspect of worship.
- Counter to fear.
- Source of life, knowledge, wisdom, provision, protection, courage, identity, mercy and worship.
- Foundation for serving and pursuing holiness.
- Equivalent to hating evil.
- Basis for unity.
- Impacts others.
- Strong force in the early Church.
Fear of God is reverence for who God is–it is thankfulness for all He does and how He loves us. Fear of God cancels out all other fears and comes from a right relationship with the Father. Fear of God is the key that produces an awesome life!
There are only two paths in life…choose the one that leads to all goodness:
Fear of God!
