Proverbs 14:27 (NKJV) 27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.

Healthy Fear 

Fearing God is part of a healthy relationship with Him.

That might sound contradictory to some. How can we and why should we love someone if we are in fear of them?

Well, let’s talk about that for a minute, so we can better understand it.

As we mentioned earlier on in this study, fear doesn’t always mean being afraid of someone in the sense that the fear brings dread or other related emotions.

A “healthy fear” of someone means that we recognize and honor them in a way that helps keep us from rebelling against them, what they teach us or what they ask of us.

A good example of this would be the relationship between children and their parents.

Children should have a healthy fear of their parents in the sense that the children want to obey the parents, knowing that if they don’t, there will be consequences for them and disappointment on the part of the parents.

Fear and Reverence Go Hand in Hand

As with the fear of God, reverence toward God has also been lost in much of today’s world, even in the church body.

Reverence is more than just respect. Reverence is deep. Reverence toward God will cause us to bow before Him and worship Him. Reverence, in its deepest sense, can cause us to become completely speechless before Him because we simply can’t find words powerful enough to convey what we’re feeling.

This can come upon us at any moment, as God gives us a revelation, shows Himself to us in a specific situation, gives us understanding about a specific topic, or any other number of things.

This has actually happened a few times as we have been writing this series. There are things that we want to say about God, but can’t find words that are worthy of being used when it comes to His attributes or His splendor.

The fear of God is kind of like reverence, but deeper still. The fear of God comes when we begin to get an understanding of His incredible awesomeness. But the word awesomeness here doesn’t just mean awesome in the typical sense used by so many people.

In fact, it will take a bit of time to dive into His awesomeness and try to do it justice. So, let’s talk about that tomorrow!

Psalm 47:2 (NKJV) 2 For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

Proverbs 10:27 (NKJV) 27 The fear of the Lord prolongs days, But the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Love or fear? Which is more important?

Yesterday we talked a little about the fact that many people will intentionally ignore or disregard the topic of “the fear of God” because they prefer to focus on God’s love and mercy.

So, today we will spend some time talking about those two things; God’s love and His mercy.

God’s love and mercy are truly incredible. The fact that he loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins is beyond comprehension.

His love for us is so fierce that He was willing to surrender Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, to atone for our sinful, wicked ways.

John 3:16 (NKJV) 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It’s this incredible, unfathomable love that causes people to stumble when they think about the fear of God. The two, His love and the fear of Him, don’t go together in their minds.

Many people can’t comprehend how a God that loves us so much, and shows us such incredible mercy, should also be feared. In their minds, the two simply can’t be reconciled.

It’s absolutely true that God’s love and mercy are critically important. Without them, not a single one of us would have any hope of a future, or even a worthwhile existence here on earth, let alone eternity in His presence.

But fearing Him is also important.

As we mature, and we get a better understanding of His love and mercy toward us, we will also learn to fear Him. For a God who can love us as fiercely as He does, despite our sin and wickedness, is surely also to be feared.

Again, it comes back to getting an understanding of who He really is. Only when we begin to get this kind of understanding will we also begin to grasp the concept of fearing Him without living our lives being afraid of Him.

We hope that this is starting to help everyone make sense of the Biblical concept of the fear of the Lord, and put it all into perspective.

Once we “get this”, so many other things will fall into place in our minds. It will all begin to make sense as we ponder on who God really is. And our perception of so many things will be forever changed as God brings understanding in this area.

Tomorrow we will continue by discussing the relationship between fear and reverence.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

Proverbs 15:33 (NKJV) 33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, And before honor is humility.

Why isn’t the fear of God talked about more?

The fear of God is something that is very seldom taught about or discussed. Why is that?

Well, it’s not always pleasing to speak about the fear of God. It bothers some people. It even offends some people.

Why? Because they don’t understand it. They don’t understand it because they don’t like it. And because they don’t like it, they don’t want to spend the time to get understanding.

It’s like a vicious circle that has no end, simply because so many people don’t want to take the time to get understanding.

Still others don’t want to know about it because they prefer not to think of God in a way that relates to any kind of fear.

The word “fear” typically conjures up images of dread, apprehension, anxiety or trepidation.

Some people don’t like to think that God is to be feared. Most people would rather think about, and talk about, God’s love and mercy.

Love and mercy are easy to talk about. They’re nice. They’re pleasant. And they carry no negative images with them.

But God’s own word speaks many, many times about learning to fear God being something wise to do.

Proverbs 15:33 (NKJV) 33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, And before honor is humility.

So, if His word says so, who are we to argue? What ground do we have to stand on when it comes to disagreeing with His word?

In reality, we have no ground to stand on. All we have are our emotions and our opinions. Neither of these hold any validity when compared to God’s own words.

Hebrews 5:12 (NKJV) 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

Psalm 34:11 (NKJV) 11 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Now, let’s talk about what the fear of God really is.

Now that we have covered what the fear of God isn’t. let’s talk about what it is. Here are some tidbits from various scriptures, just to get us pointed in the right direction.

Psalm 111:10 (NKJV) 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

Proverbs 1:7 (NKJV) 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…

Proverbs 14:27 (NKJV) 27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life…

Just these three verses should give us a really good idea about the foundations of the fear of God and what it really is.

As you can see, these are all positive things; things that bring good into our lives. The beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge and a fountain of life!

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

As we get understanding about the fear of God, we realize that to fear Him isn’t to constantly be afraid of Him. Instead, it is understanding who He really is, the wonder of Him, the incredible awesomeness of who He really is, and using that to put everything into perspective.

Does that mean that we should never be afraid of Him? No. There should be times when we are afraid, but not so much in a way that causes dread to overcome us.

More in a way that says, “God, I know how mighty and powerful you are. I know that you spoke the worlds into existence, and that you have the power to give and to take away. And I understand that my mind can never fully comprehend any of that, but I will honor you with my life in every way possible”.

This is the fear of God in the life of a believer. This is how to explain it in a way that goes way beyond the dreadful fear that most people think of when the word “fear” is used.

Our fear of Him isn’t based on dread. It is based on understanding. This kind of understanding is what takes us beyond childish fear and brings us into a mature awe of who He is.

Proverbs 14:26 (NKJV) 26 In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

Proverbs 9:10 (NKJV) 10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

What is the fear of God?

The fear of God is something that is quite misunderstood. People have all kinds of ideas about what the fear of God is and what it means.

But, in addition to the misconceptions and misunderstandings about this, there are also many of us who have no real understanding at all about what it means to “fear God”.

We want to try to clear this up and bring understanding to this daunting topic.

Before we talk about what the fear of God is, though, let’s talk about what it isn’t.

The fear of God shouldn’t cause us to walk around, cowering, constantly worried about being struck down or condemned to death the very second that we do something wrong.

The fear of God shouldn’t cause us to become depressed.

The fear of God shouldn’t cause us to lose sleep every night, worrying about whether we’re going to be consumed by God’s wrath before we wake up.

The fear of God should have no negative connotations or implications in our lives as a whole.

If we wrestle with any of these things, we probably lack understanding in this area.

God never wants us to lack understanding or be uninformed or uneducated, especially when it comes to His word and our understanding of Him.

Proverbs 4:7 (NKJV) 7 Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

So, over the next several days, we will dig into this topic and get understanding. And by the time we’re finished, we will be informed, educated and knowledgeable, bringing a deeper insight and peace to our hearts and minds.

To be continued tomorrow.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!