willing_servant

Today I have discovered something that is utterly helpful to me. In the past years I've often felt afraid of God, and because that fear was a terror to me, that I could not get past, I suffered much from it. Because I did not want the fear, I sought ways to escape it, but by seeking such ways I only arrived at escaping God Himself.

I've realized now that being with God is always coming together with fearing Him. And the fear is utterly necessary because it helps us sin much less. Once I accepted this fear today, and said to myself, only add love and faith to it, Daniel, I have become much better. I used to fear loosing respect for God, but how can I loose respect if I keep on fearing God?

I've always wondered why I used to know fear as only a slight emotion that wasn't even unpleasant. It just gave me impulses on what to do and not to do, and as long as I was listening correctly to such impulses I was fine. Now I am getting to have the same fear again as I used to, a controlled fear that trusts and loves. In a way, the fear of God already is a very strong love which only needs the experience of a long walk with God and becoming able to reap a strong harvest from this.

And when I fear God, I need not fear anyone else. It is God who decides my destiny, it is God who can keep me safe, and God promised in the bible that the one who fears God will live in safety.

I only needed to understand that love and trust can coexist with fear and make it managaeble. And that the fear of God is nothing evil but instead a pure thing.

violet

Dusty

W. S. That is a wonderful way of looking at fear and I never really thought of it that way . Thanks for sharing that.

Amen.

__________________

Trials prove a Christian

Love confirms a Christian

But death crowns a Christian

andiclare

I agree that fear of God is defined by/as love of God. When you realize this, you're able to reconcile the sometimes seemingly contradictory aspects of God- His Justice and His Mercy...His awesome majesty as Creator of the universe, and his loving humility as a man on a cross.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, WS!

willing_servant

Thanks for all of your comments.

Yes, fear of God must be accepted. It's a step in the right direction. The problem of being in fear doesn't lie in the fear, but in a false attitude towards it. Fear means the body signaling to you a danger, urging you violently to do what's right. In the case of the fear of God, it means acceptance of God's authority. We can't enjoy the benefits of having God when we don't accept His rule. And as anyone will see in the end, being under God's rule has benefits for us as well.

Many people forget their childhood, and how dependent they had been on their parents to protect them and to put them on the right path in life and to guide them along the way. In a sense, we christians never mature beyond being children of God who always need His guidance. We never grow into independent adulthood, so to speak. In another sense we do have to mature because God wants us to understand, which is something children can't do. But this maturing consists of learning to accept God's guidance at all times, and trying to understand Him simply because it pleases God and keeps us safe in His arms.

Fipi

Thanks WS, that is really great. I'm glad we're always children of God.
Thanks for sharing that!

__________________
"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." - 2 Cor 12:20