Fear of God is a constant awareness that God exists and is everywhere and can do anything.
There have been great men who lapsed in their fear of God to great consequence. Moses could not enter the promised land after leading the people for 40 years because of his lapse. David's baby died because of his lapse.
Yes God loves every person and wants every person to come to salvation through Jesus, but part of that love is discipline when we fall astray. It's just like how a loving parent will discipline their child when the child does wrong. It's just in this case God's discipline comes from a place of omnipotence.
But then it's more about respect than fear, no? I don't want my children to fear me when they do wrong, I want them to come to me and to learn from the mistake they made. I think that God would see it this way as well.
It's the fear of consequences for your wrong actions. It's not your children fearing you, it's not you fearing God himself, but it's the fear of not having the life you want due to wrong decisions. That fear keeps you on the right path. It's kinda odd to say you have respect for that path, or that it is just respect for God, maybe you do, but how does that lead you anywhere? I can respect someone and not care one bit about what they say to me or do.
Fear is the fear of His wrath for denouncing His wants by our actions.
The fear of God is an Old Testament concept as where the unconditional love of God is through Christ’s sacrifice.
This. God does hit us up side the head. I told my son once "your angels must really love you," because he always got caught and paid a price for acting against his better self. Same thing with Trump, and he got sent to military school. Fear God.
took a while, but eventually my love for truth brought me to the fear of God
I've never really understood why we should fear God. Respect, Love, absolutely - but fear?
It doesn't tally with my experience to be honest, so I have a hard time understanding it.
Now, if I was to go off the reservation and set myself against God & Jesus, then yes, I could imagine being fearful, but that isn't happening.
Fear of God is a constant awareness that God exists and is everywhere and can do anything.
There have been great men who lapsed in their fear of God to great consequence. Moses could not enter the promised land after leading the people for 40 years because of his lapse. David's baby died because of his lapse.
Yes God loves every person and wants every person to come to salvation through Jesus, but part of that love is discipline when we fall astray. It's just like how a loving parent will discipline their child when the child does wrong. It's just in this case God's discipline comes from a place of omnipotence.
But then it's more about respect than fear, no? I don't want my children to fear me when they do wrong, I want them to come to me and to learn from the mistake they made. I think that God would see it this way as well.
It's the fear of consequences for your wrong actions. It's not your children fearing you, it's not you fearing God himself, but it's the fear of not having the life you want due to wrong decisions. That fear keeps you on the right path. It's kinda odd to say you have respect for that path, or that it is just respect for God, maybe you do, but how does that lead you anywhere? I can respect someone and not care one bit about what they say to me or do.
Fear is the fear of His wrath for denouncing His wants by our actions. The fear of God is an Old Testament concept as where the unconditional love of God is through Christ’s sacrifice.
This. God does hit us up side the head. I told my son once "your angels must really love you," because he always got caught and paid a price for acting against his better self. Same thing with Trump, and he got sent to military school. Fear God.
Whenever I've been given an opportunity to learn from my mistakes, I'm not fearful, I'm grateful.
I think I must have a different understanding of fear then.
I've read some of the responses on here and the ones about reverence make sense - it's not a use of the word I was familiar with.
I'm not someone who experiences fear the way other people seem to, so maybe my understanding is biased by that.