Fearing God..

grimsauce

New Member
I struggle with the idea of Fearing God... because I'm not sure if I do.



I hear so often that we should humbly fear and worship our creator, but I am not 'afraid' of God.


Let me try to explain... I Love my dad and I trust my dad. At this point in time, I am dependant on him for almost everything. Me and my dad have a great relationship, and I don't think I fear him. I realize when making my decisions that he has the power to take away everything he has given, but my trust over rules that and drives out my fear.

and as I write this, figuring it out for the first time, I remember this passage... thanks be to God for this:

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

I think that I do not fear, because I am steadfast in my trust of his love. Just like I trust that my dad would not intentionally hurt me and do not fear him because he also loves me so much, God loves me even more, so how much more is it harder for me to fear.

I literally can not fear God If I believe in his unsurmountable love for me... because I Know that if God loves me like I believe and have read, then I have nothing to fear... not even God...

Though... I still feel upset when I can type or say that I don't "fear" God. I feel like I am directly defying something. Maybe I do fear God but not like I would fear a bully. I mean, I understand (to a very small extent) that he is the creator of the galaxies and also 20 something muscles in a caterpillar's head.. which is definitely awe inspiring. He has the power to end my life but that isn't what he wants, according to scripture... because he loved us SO much, he sent his son.. so if God is on my side, who's against me? How can I fear someone on my side? I can respect his power... but fear?

I'd love to hear your thoughts... maybe you disagree with something I've said which is perfectly understandable. I am trying to work through this and probably will be for quite a long time. And because I have the desire to go back and delete certain things I've said or change things around, I just want to write this to say that I'm just going to leave everything as it is, which is literally my flow of thought on this subject.

Thanks
 
Every time I heard someone preach about it, or when reading books on it, they all (mostly) said this was about respecting and revering God, not just because He can destroy us, but because of all that He's done, doing, and will do for us out of His grace. If your dad was a king, say, in the 1600s, would you walk into the throne room talking loudly, patting him on the back? Nah, you would come humble, and show respect for his authority. There are times when you could do the father/son thing, but it would mostly be the respect part. Same thing concerning the OT, and how the Priests acted proper and upright before entering the tents/tabernacles.

That's how I see it anyways.
 
I guess the question is: Is the fear you talk about quiver in your boots fear, or fear as in respect? Don't mix the two.
 
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