Because I was born into a Christian family and went to all the church things (Sunday school, VBS, AWANA, summer camps, retreats, youth group), I have heard typical Christian phrases my whole life. During my first couple of months on the race, I would regurgitate these phrases about God. Ex- “God is love”, “God is kind”, “He is just”, “God always does what is good for you even when it doesn’t feel like it”, etc.
In Haiti, we did evangelism almost every morning. After one week of it, I was so sick of myself. I was the biggest hypocrite and felt like I was living such a false life. How could I repeat these phrases to so many people when I don’t believe them, don’t understand them, don’t personally know them to be truth???
But God has taken me on a journey over the course of these 9 months. Especially in the sense of getting to know Him personally. Now, when I talk about God, the words and phrases I use aren’t meaningless… I only speak on what I know to be truth because I have personally experienced God those ways. I know what and why I am saying and thinking the things that I say and think.
One of those “phrases” I was unpacking in South Africa was what it means to “fear the Lord.”
It’s something I’ve read countless times in the bible. I’ve heard preachers and pastors reference it. But I really had no idea what it actually meant. So I began to investigate (((( I actually wrote the remaining part of this blog in South Africa aka January.)))))
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To start, here’s the definition from the New Oxford American Dictionary:
Fear
(noun) an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. A feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something or the safety and well being of someone. The likelihood of something unwelcome happening.
(verb) be afraid of (something or someone) as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening. Feel anxiety or apprehension on behalf of.
Why would God want us to fear Him if it’s an “unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat”. Why would God want us to fear Him if it fills us with a “feeling of anxiety concerning the safety and well being of someone” and translates to “something unwelcome happening”?
That didn’t sound like the God so many people teach about/I knew. Plus, something that is especially pressed into today’s youth is that God is your friend and that’s not how I imagine a relationship to be between friends.
(((How many other religions can say that their god/gods are their friends? NONE. It is an incredible gift that God has given us. But like all gifts, we need to be aware and cautious of certain things. The gift of having Jesus as our best friend can warp our minds to think He is at our level and/or we have permission to treat Him the same way we treat our earthly friends.
We are making the God of the universe, the perfect Lamb who was slain for our sins, into “just another one of our many, simple friends”. How ugly of me and other Christians to abuse such a great gift. God has allowed us to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him. We are so entitled and presumptuous to we take God and place Him at our level.
Like so many things in Christianity, we need to find a balance/tension. In this case, a tension between having God as your best friend and fearing God. Friendship vs. reverence.
God is so complex. He allows us to simultaneously have a deep, one on one relationship with Him, yet He created the universe, ensures the birds and the lions continue to be fed day in and out. He is so vast and great and powerful, yet remains intricate, simple, constant and beautiful. He chooses to come and live inside of us, be with us constantly, walk alongside us, and be waiting for us to spend eternity with Him in heaven all at the same time.
I know I keep repeating the same thing in different ways, but it just blows my mind that God is so good to us. There’s nothing like it and there never will be. )))
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I asked my teammates and the other team I was living with (in South Africa) to share what “fearing God” meant to them.
SOOOO, here are some 18, 19, and 20 year old’s thoughts on fearing God…
Ben: For me to fear god means to mainly just simply respect God if you respect the power of God you will be cautious to approach and learn as much as you can about interacting with him which is why fear of God leads to more knowledge, stated in proverbs 1:7
Carsen: being scared of what God thinks of you as much as we fear what others think of us.
Daven: To me, fearing the Lord means recognizing His sovereignty and inherent goodness in a way that leads me to humble surrender.
Grace: Remembering who He is, what He has done (the power He has to make everything out of nothing by just speaking) and just Revelation. It’s impossible (at least for me) to read Revelation and not get chills from reading His plans and power.
Hailey: Fearing God to me means being fully aware of His extreme vastness, and how big He is, especially when I want to only view Him as my friend or comforter. He’s so much bigger and I think to fear Him, I need to be aware of how big He is- what he’s capable of.
Kara: In the same way I have a respect for my parents and still have a genuine relationship with them, is how I see fearing God. It is recognizing His power and control, giving Him the reverence He deserves, while at the same time, having a sweet relationship with Him.
Ky: To me, fearing God means to bow in reverence before Him, because He created everything in existence. He spoke the earth into motion, and with His same voice, He has the power to condemn us.
Kyla: For me, it’s noticing how powerful He is. He literally said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. Just by speaking, God has so much power. He’s in control of everything.
Lillabea: Fearing God is an act of reverence, a realization of the nothingness we simply are without God, a deep and true respect for who God is, an excellent display of humility. Remind me of King Solomon’s book of Ecclesiastes. His whole conclusion that “meaningless, meaningless, everything’s meaningless” after searching far and wide for knowledge and women and money and food and the finest things this world can offer, yet he concludes his understanding to God being the only thing of any meaning in this entire world. He searched for it all, he chased pleasures and purpose until he ran completely exhausted with unfulfillment, and yet he can’t deny that God is the singular most High in every meaning possible. God is the most powerful, the provider of all things of any value or purpose, and He is the only source of real, long-lasting contentment in all of the world. That’s fearing God I believe. It’s ironic in nature though, fearing God is. Ironic because we as Christians don’t exclusively live in fear of God’s might, we simultaneously seek His love and in that love is birthed things like joy and peace and unity and a life lived to the full. Seems complex, yet it’s simple. God is a God that we have no right not to fear, yet He loves us still, promising to never leave or forsake us, proving He is a healer and protector, encouraging even the seemingly small things such as our fun. How nice. How wild.
Nick: There’s a balance right? To the fear of God. Do we cower and tremble before the Lord of the Universe? The Thing that exists before and after time? The being that spoke the galaxies into motion? Or do we fear Him Ike a child fears a loving father, with adoration and respect and attentiveness. The Fear of God is the recognition of His perfection, and because of that awe, we accept love and grace and live freely, all the while knowing that we walk in mercy.
Paige: To me, fearing the Lord means having a holy understanding and respect for the vastness and power of God. I just think how small we are in comparison to how big God is. And if God created humans and also created galaxies upon galaxies, who are we to challenge His authority or knowledge. He is, in fact, all-knowing, and we only share a fraction of a fraction of His knowledge and understanding.
Shane: To me, fearing God is having the constant awareness that everything we have here in watch is His. Knowing that He gives and takes away, that it’s not truly ours.
Taylor: To fear the lord is a deep reverence and understanding of the paradox in his character. It means that you don’t lean on your understanding, you trust him. When you fear the lord earthly things and circumstances melt away, your treasure is in heaven therefore your life parallels with that truth. It simply all points back to love, to fear him is to love him.
Lucie:
Psalm 25.12-14 (AMP)
Who is the man who fears the Lord [with awe-inspired reverence and worships Him with submissive wonder]?
He will teach him [through His word] in the way he should choose.
His soul will dwell in prosperity and goodness,
And his descendants will inherit the land.
The secret [of the wise counsel] of the Lord is for those who fear Him,
And He will let them know His covenant and reveal to them [through His word] its [deep, inner] meaning.
Psalm 25.12-14 (ESV)
Who is the man who fears the Lord?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
To me fear of the Lord is walking in awareness of my humanity and His sovereignty.
Understanding that I deserve fully His wrath but realizing that His wrath is also His love.
So His wrath doesn’t make me scared of Him or afraid, but it gives me perspective on my standing before Him and lots of humility. Like it shows me how much He hates sin, and because He hates sin so freaking much, He cannot tolerate any part of it in me. God’s love is expressed in His zero tolerance of sin in my life aka that’s why He had to send Jesus to make me perfect. Praise. So I fear the Lord by walking in awareness of my humanity and understanding what i deserved versus His power and perfection. But seeing it all in light of Jesus’ sacrifice which also allows me to be friends with God. Fear of God and friendship with God are both the fruit of intimacy and His love and Jesus so for me it’s learning to walk in the tension and balance of those 2 things.
but you should read all of Psalm 25. its super baller and i think you’ll like it a lot.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Psa/Psa_025.cfm
this is a long commentary on it, but i think it speaks to a lot of things that you’ll find relevant and interesting.
My definition?
Although I started to look into what it looks like and means to fear the Lord, I know I am just seeing the tip of the iceberg.. but as of now, this is my definition
The vapor of God’s breath created everything that ever has existed and will ever exist. With zero effort, He can do ANYTHING. He is everything. And in all the glorious and perfect things He has ever created or could even create, He chose to create me, Katie Plank. If that’s not insane enough to think about, He sent Himself to take the punishment for all my sins so that I could live with Him for eternity. I owe Him everything. I am nothing without Him. I am a servant that is only known by other servants because He knew me first. I need to live with my only purpose of life being to serve Him and be a vessel for Him. I need to care only about what He cares about, love what He loves, do what He says to do, and nothing else. To fear God means to live your life as if heaven’s eye is the only one that is watching you. Fearing the Lord is knowledge that if you disobey and live life according to the world, your flesh, evil spirits, etc. then the wrath of God- THINK ABOUT IT. THE WRATH OF GOD. Something I never want to know, especially first hand, is the true wrath of GOD- will be upon you. We have free will, so we have the chance to choose life or death. The chance to choose inheriting the kingdom of God or having the wrath of God upon us. This is real. This is how we are called to be living. Fearing the Lord in every moment, fearing what the Lord thinks about each action we make, each word we speak, each thought we think. That’s what fearing the Lord means to me.
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fear the Lord.
