the fear of the LORD (5) what it means to me

It's time (finally!) to wrap up my series on the fear of God. What I thought would take a couple of weeks has taken a whole term!! I've talked about:

• the God we fear - how the fear of God means turning from false gods to love, trust and obey the one true God
• the fear in fear (a) and (b) - how the "scary" parts of God's character make us fear God
• fearing, but not afraid - how God's forgiveness and salvation make us fear God with trembling joy
• fear on this side of the cross (a) and (b) - what the fear of God looks and feels like now Jesus has died

I admit I'm still not particularly happy with my definition:

To fear the LORD is to take seriously his awesome majesty, limitless power, absolute holiness, dreadful judgement, glorious salvation and gracious forgiveness, and so to submit to him as the one true God, with trust, love, worship, honour, service and obedience.

"Take seriously" - it's pretty feeble, isn't it? The truth is, I ran through a list of alternatives - "respect", "don't forget", "be mindful of" - and none quite summed up the complex emotions, attitudes and actions that I've come to see make up the fear of God.

So what is the fear of God?

• an an attitude of the heart - like loving God, it sums up who we are in relation to God at the most basic part of our being, as creatures towards our Creator, Lord and Saviour
• a set of emotions - call it "reverent awe", if you like, it includes fear, wonder, joy, admiration, amazement, respect, honour and adoration
• trust, love and obedience - it's an attitude which leads to action - we put our hope in God, we don't dare to refuse God, and we take sin seriously

In fact, now I come to look at it, it encompasses all five of the "contradictory definitions" I outlined right at the start of this series! I wasn't expecting that!

Thinking about the fear of God has had a profound impact on me.

• It's helped me not to fear. Did you know that the most common command in the Bible is "do not fear"? I'm naturally a people-fearer: I don't speak about Jesus for fear of what people will think of me. I've been struck by how often the Bible tells us to fear God instead of evil and disaster, people and nations, or idols and false gods. I've been inspired to fear God more than I fear people.
• It's reminded me to to take God's judgement seriously. Even though Jesus keeps me safe from eternal judgement, if I put up with sin in my life, I can expect God's fatherly discipline. I also need to be aware that one day I'll have to give an account for every impure thought and cowardly silence. I need to get serious about holiness!
• It's inspired me to pray regularly that I will grow in the fear of God: a prayer God delights in and promises to answer! After all, the fear of God brings great blessings: wisdom, mercy, long life, protection, goodness, deliverance and salvation.
• It's filled my heart with trembling joy. The words rejoice with trembling sum up how the fear of God feels to me. I find myself praising God with an extra degree of joy and awe!

How has thinking about the fear of God affected you?

images are from { karen} and .sweetcaroline http://www.flickr.com/