Saturday, 18 July 2009
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Are You Afraid of God?
On a retreat a year or so ago, I learned that Christians should have a "Fear and Awe of the Lord." I hadn't really thought much of it until yesterday: sometimes things just randomly pop into my head. Anyways, to satisfy my questioning, I flipped through the Bible and found numerous instances where God had used fear to get people to subject to His will. Back in Bible times, people really were afraid of God. They had a gut-wrenching fear of the source of their religion. Even today, people genuinely fear the Lord.Personally, I can honestly say that I am not afraid. It's just a feeling, and we all know that feelings are the hardest things to put into words. God has too much love in him to be anything bad and scary, and no matter what he does to my life, I will not fear him.
Are you afraid of God?
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- From: TrumpetLionessLove@xanga
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Comments (32)
That's exactly it. He's full of love so there's nothing to be scared of. The "fear" that is described in the bible is more of a combination of reverence and actual fear. For Christians and people who believe in God, there's nothing wrong in fearing the Being who can make or break your life. Good question. =]
The Old testament God, yeah. God would lay the law down quite flat.
The New testament God, eh. God's all about the forgiveness and such.
I think that in a sense we should be afraid of God. He is so Holy and perfect and right, and we are so sinful. In the Bible it speaks of people being absolutely terrified of angels. How much more God? I think that we sometimes forget what a Holy and awesome God He really is. Moses had to put his face to a rock as the Lord passed by because if He were to actually see God he would have died.
Deuteronomy 5:24-26 "The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have
heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live
even if God speaks with him.
But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we
will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?"
That passage shows how the Israelites feared Him. I agree with obedmanuel@xanga that it's a mix of fear and awe. On the one hand, I think we need to remember that God has made a way for us to know Him and that we don't need to fear, on the other hand, I think we also need to remember that God is also a God of glory and majesty and the earth trembles in His presence.
Of course he isn't safe! But he's good.
I confess, even as a Christian I fear judgment day and what the end times will be like. I know I'm certainly not alone in this feeling, but I just feel like I never did enough, didn't love God enough, and what have you.
You wont learn a solid doctrine about Godly Fear on Revelife-- instead, get your Bible and go back to those scriptures and look up the word "fear" in a concordance (or on biblegateway.com if you don't have a concordance).
You will find that fear was not a "ahh, godzilla! run!" type of fear; it was a sober realization that you were entering into the presence of the creator of the vast expanses of everything seen and unseen! And in the previous dispensations (as you referred to them as 'bible days'), God did often bring direct calamity upon nations, and strike down those who were evil.
I believe that we have moved from that dispensation where God strikes people down directly, and we are currently in (though towards the end of) a time when God is setting things up behind the scenes for an even greater demonstration of his authority and power to bring all praise and glory to his name. I think there will be great triumph when all the "great minds" of the world are brought into silence before God when he unvails himself again to us all.
At any rate, Jesus even told us "Fear God, and keep His commandments"-- that is our duty. God holds the highest place in my heart. I love Him and serve Him as best as I can (though still mightily flawed), but I also have a certain amount of fear when I come before His thrown..... to me that is why faith is SO important; if you truly believe in God, and you understand him to be as powerful as he is, then you REALLY have to trust in the blood of Christ to cleanse us before we come to God. You have to really TRUST in GODS GRACE when you approach such a mighty throne.
God will go to great lengths to bring those He loves back into perfect relationship with Him. If we sin and do not feel the need to be forgiven, He will often bring about circumstances we find less than pleasant in order to show us how wrong we are.
He is capable of ending your life with just a thought. Just because He is loving doesn't erase that fact.
I always saw a difference between fear and being afraid. I feared my parents' punishments for disobedience, but I wasn't afraid of them.
No... he's my friend, we chat often, but I don't think of God as a God of love either (yes, he is) but as a Holy God. Maybe if christianity would get back to seeing and seeking the Holiness of God it wouldn't be so screwed up with all this emo crap that it currently deals with.
But then again as long as the church seeks the 'worlds' approval instead of its disdain, we'll have this. "be holy as your Father who is in heaven is Holy" ~ Jesus
1. We reverence God and follow his ways carefully-that's what "fear" means in this context.
2. Before Jesus, things looked toward His coming, but the sacrifice hadn't been made yet for our sins. Fear had a much more prominent place in keeping people on the straight path. Now we have the opportunity to become God's children, bold and beloved in His presence.
My favorite verses about fear:
Psalm 130:3-4
3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
Clearly, biblical "fear" means something other than terror. It means awe at God's forgiveness. That's a fear I want to have!
1 John 4:18
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.
This one is talking about the scary kind of fear, the kind God never wants His children to face.
Major point, though. If we don't have Jesus, we should be afraid. God gave us a way of escape, but if we refuse to take Him, we should be scared about where our sins will take us. God doesn't want that, but He gives us a choice.
I have met several people who independantly of each other have interpreted "fear of God" more as "fear of hurting God." Just a thought. Although I do believe we should also fear God. I have had fear of repenting to God as well, so this can really be interpreted in several ways.
Just know that when you meet Him, you will probably be a bit scared.
God is love and God is our friend. But God is holy, God is all-powerful, God demands justice. God commands holiness. God's wrath is stirred up by our willful perversion of His truth. The earth is His footstool. Because of this, we should be in respectful, reverent awe of Him.
Yet God is not a cosmic bully that we must be scared of. That doesn't make Him a giant care bear either... He is perfect and Holy is His delight, anger, love and justice. We have a hard time grasping how all of those attributes can be consistent throughout a person simultaneously. To us someone is either a vengeful person or a loving person. We can be compassionate or we can be angry. Someone is scary or approachable. For one to be equally all of the above all of the time is beyond us.
sometimes yes, sometimes no.
I have had times of true fear. When it is over, I go back to my old way of living most of the time.
Honestly, I don't think I fear Him enough.
As a child, I had a very real fear of God... a very childlike fear in that I was constantly afraid I was going to incur his wrath against me and get myself killed for sinning. I didn't really know God as well then, and didn't know a lot about His loving nature, and his benevolence toward us. i didn't understand his sovereignty, and the truth of is word and his promises. I didn't get the need for a savior, one that never changes and never gives up on me.
I'm reminded of the ancient shepherd's practice of correcting a sheep that likes to leave the flock and go astray. He would break the sheep's legs, and carry it on his shouders until it healed. When he sheep healed, i would be different... it would stay near the shepherd and stay safe, because though the time of it's injury, it formed a dependance on the shepherd.
Now, I do fear the chastisement of God. When I allow sin to enter my life, or when I ignore the things God is laying on my heart to do or stop doing... I am reminded that God will resort to whatever he needs to do in order to bring me back to a place that is close to Him, where he will shepherd me. I am reminded of my past, and times when i ran from God, and how miserable I had become.
I'm not afraid of Jesus Christ's love. I do fear God though like nothing else. The Bible says "The fear of The Lord is the beginning of wisdom". I remember after I had strayed far away from Him needing to come back into His favor. The only thing I could do was get down on the floor and on my face before Him. Was I afraid? At first, yes. And then with prayer He showed me He loved me and I was going to be okay. Later, I strayed again. I had a death experience during that time which I have to describe as fearfull. God showed me without Him I didn't have a chance of making it into Heaven, as He warned me of the reality of Hell. Lack of faith doesn't please God any. During a series of visions He wanted to know which it was with me: saved or not? Standing before The Lord for the split second visions was really scary. He wanted me to decide.
@Love__Chronicles@xanga - You shouldn't fear the discipline from God. It's no fun and He knows just how to do it so you know exactly what's what. But if you ever go through this then know after, which may take awhile, He will do something real nice for you. One author explanes his grace like this: God punishes and then takes you to Dairy Queen. But take it from me, disappointing God is terrible. It feels awfull and it can be hard to repent. I fear letting Him down and losing part of my relationship with Him far more than what today's temptations might be and how hard it might be to say no and walk away with Him.
@DeLasombra@xanga - Same God though, right? I have heard that there are two God's, OT and NT. He's the same God. It's just that in the NT, aka the new covenant and the new agreement, God experienced Himself what it was like exactly to be a man. We are living under a new agreement between ourselves and The Lord. Jesus Christ is the word made flesh - the OT words born as a man. So God didn't do away with the OT.
He does not exist, so no. But the Bible depicts him as deliciously evil. If he were to exist you'd be a damn fool not to fear his immaturity and self righteous attitude.
Sometimes I am.
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - Yes! Excellent LWW reference.
Fear is respect, reverence, awe. I don't think God would want us to be afraid of him. It's hard to have an intimate relationship with someone you are afraid of.
i fear him, but i'm not afraid of him. i fear him because i know he's the creator of all things and my creator. but i see it this way, it's my dad, i fear him because he's my dad and i obey his rules but i'm not afraid of him, he's not evil, he's kind and loving.
Honestly, when I went to Catholic school, they did the whole "vengeful God" thing, and I was absolutely terrified. When I got kicked out and simply went to Catholic mass, I got confused about the whole damn religion, because they were more modern Christianity. But I was still afraid of the concept of a diety throwing me into the pits of Hell.
With the religion I am now, the goddess and god I worship are more like friends, and I realize death is a part of life. I don't believe in a punishing afterlife, just "remedial classes" on the subject via reincarnation, and I'm happy.
I don't fear him, I love him. But I do have a reference for him that is very real.
p
@DeLasombra@xanga - Same God!