Character: What does it mean to be God Fearing and How do we get there and why?

It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man

John Witherspoon

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding”.  “Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord”, but what does that mean? How does it benefit us? How do we learn to fear the Lord? And finally how will it change us? Let’s come and reason together on this matter and I hope it will not only give you a deeper understanding but help you in your relationship with our Lord Jesus.

John Witherspoon is right in this matter, that it is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man. When we put God into His proper perspective we will no longer fear what men can do to us because we have an understanding of the power and authority He has over our lives. Like any parent the Lord’s concern for us is that we become the people He has called us to be. We are called to be men and women of godly character and this begins with the fear of the Lord. But what does this mean?

What does it really mean to fear the Lord?  We’ll one thing it isn’t, is terror. God doesn’t want us to fear Him but to love Him (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37). God is a loving God and we must understand that fear here does not mean terror. No parent wants their children to fear (as in terror) them and Jesus is no different. What we are talking about is respect, reverence and piety as would be suggested in the meaning of the Hebrew word used yir’ah (Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon). This is the true meaning when speaking of fearing God. That is a good thing because we don’t want to live our lives in terror of the Lord.

Let me give you an example of what I mean here. Do you remember growing up and you had this respect for your parents because of the authority they had over you. You knew if you screwed up and broke one of their rules you were going to get it.

When I was young I remember breaking curfew once. Although we never had an explicit curfew like 10:00pm; we did have my mom’s statement come in at a decent time and all us kids knew what that meant 10:00-10:30 max, any time after that we had to call. Well let’s say one night I didn’t and I came home about 11:20 pm, I remember the time like it was yesterday because it had left such a profound mark on me. I have never been in trouble like that before and rightfully so. My mom let me have it verbally but I lost the use of my car for about a week and I couldn’t go out of the house except to work after school.

My mom yelling and punishing me was tough but the worst of it was disappointing them. I could see in my mom’s and dad’s eye that they were disappointed. I was raised to know better than that so it was a double whammy. I remember it quite well today.

I respect my parent’s authority even then but like all kids tested the limits and I lost that night. But never again did I ever want to disappoint them, nor make them angry. I knew that if there was a next time I would be in greater trouble. I respected them for wanting to keep me safe because they love me.

Well, God has done the same thing. He has His laws and rules to keep us safe because He loves us. And like our earthly parents He will correct us if we go astray from them. Scripture says:

Proverbs 3:12  For whom the LORD loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights.

And just like our earthly parents we must respect His authority over us. However we needn’t be in terror of what He is going to do for two reasons. One He loves us and two He is a just God. As a loving and just Father He doesn’t want to hurt us nor does he want to undermine our confidence we have in Him. But what He wants us to do is to think about the consequences of the discipline He will have to give us but not only that the disappointment we have brought to Him. And like any parent no matter what He will still love us and if we have learned our lesson we will not go astray again.

With that said there are benefits to fearing the lord as well or should I say revere the Lord. These benefits are as follows:

• Prolongs your days (Proverbs 10:27)
• Strong Confidence and a place of Refuge (Proverbs14:26)
• It is the fountain of life (Proverbs 14:27)
• It is the instruction of wisdom (Proverbs 15:33)
• Men depart from evil (Proverbs 16:6)
• Live in satisfaction (Proverbs 19:23)
• Brings riches, honor (Proverbs 22:4)
• Take delight in the rightful discernment of judging things (Isaiah 11:3)
•  Find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:5)

Now I could go through each of these in the list thoroughly, but I’m going to challenge you here. I want you to look up these verses, put them in context, seek supporting verses and then meditate upon them one by one. Really study them and you will see the meaning for yourself.

Let’s look now at, how do we learn to fear the Lord? This is a deep and complex issue here of which I touch some key elements but I still suggest that you study scripture even further for a more in depth understanding. Of course as Christian we are all called to study to show ourselves as an approved worker of God (2Timmothy 2:15). And that is my suggestion to you.

Well Proverbs 2:1-5 puts it best. It reads:

• 1  My son, if you will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;
• 2  So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
• 3  Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
• 4  If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;
• 5  Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

Verse 1 is really receiving His word which can be found in scripture. God in the scriptures is speaking to us and He wants us to bring it into our hearts so that we can keep it with us always. To do this we must listen and apply what we learn into our lives. It isn’t enough to understand but we must do as well.

Verses 3, 4 and 5 are really saying we should pray for wisdom to understand the word. Then we must seek His wisdom in scripture just like we would be looking for hidden treasure if we had a map. The Bible is our map and we need to use it and understand what God is saying to us. Once we do this we will understand the fear of the Lord.

To sum up what we need to do to learn to fear the Lord we must receive His words and keep His commandments in our hearts. We must listen for His wisdom in scripture and apply it to our lives. To do this we must pray for wisdom and  understanding, we must seek like we are looking for hidden treasure the nuggets that are in the Bible and then we shall come to fear (respect/revere) the Lord appropriately.

Through this process it isn’t our own understanding that brings us to fear the Lord it is through the Holy Spirit that we do so. And it is through the Spirit’s power and understanding that will take us to know and to put on the Lord’s righteousness. It will be through the fear of him that will keep us on the path, preserving us and protecting us from the evils of men that would want to lead us astray.

I cannot improve on the following verses because they are rather clear. But what I can do is tell you what is the question that these verses answer; how does fearing the Lord change us?  I’ll end here but really contemplate this message as a whole it will change your life. The two verses that are the answers to the question are:

 

• Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
• Isaiah 33:6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.