What Does Fear God Mean?
To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
Proverbs 8:13
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. (Luke 10:27) Our love and respect for God should keep us from doing anything that displeasing Him. We are not perfect and we cannot always be pleasing to God, but we have forgiveness through Christ.
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13) Our love for the Lord drives us to serve him with all our heart, and we fear that we might do something that’s not pleasing to God. To love God means we hate sin. If we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then, we fear God meaning we never want to deliberately sin and displease him.
If we don’t fear God, we don’t have the heart to overcome and hate sin. Without Godly fear, we will choose something of our desire rather than doing what God desires. If we truly fear the Lord, we will seek to always please him, and to always be obedient to his good, pleasing and perfect will. Christ will always have priority in our life because Christ is our life.
If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Psalm 130:3-4 NKJV) We have forgiveness of sins because we can never be perfect. Christ forgives us so we can continue to fear God and hate sin more. Our heart’s desire is to always please the Lord, but our flesh causes us to sometimes sin. Fortunately, God looks at our hearts. Our love for God is so strong we fear that we might accidently sin which is displeasing to God. But we have forgiveness from Christ, and we have Godly sorrow. Without fear of the Lord how can we become strong spiritual warriors against sin?
Today, let the fear of the Lord drive you away from any sinful behavior. Live to please the Lord and obey his will. Keep in your mind that you don’t want to do anything that displeases the Lord.
Prayer: Lord, fill my heart with your love and with fear of sin. Guide me in the Spirit to live for Christ so I can seek to always please you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.