What Does It Mean To Fear The Lord? 4 Honest Explanations

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In this post, I will be answering the question of what does it mean to fear the Lord and what is the fear of the Lord. The whole idea of fearing God can be confusing. You are supposed to love the Lord and you are supposed to fear the Lord, but how or why would you even want to? And that is the question that I am going to answer in this post.

In the past, I have said,  since God is our father I compared the fear that we should have for the Lord to one that children should have for their parents. If that still sounds crazy to you then go ahead and read my blog post on why children should fear their parents to get a good understanding of what I am talking about. (click here to read that post).

1. What Does It Mean To Fear The Lord & What Is The Fear Of The Lord

To start off this discussion, I feel that it is only right to point to Biblical scriptures that will help me explain what to fear the Lord means.

• Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

What is the fear of the Lord ~ Verse explained: If God were standing in front of you right now would you punch Him in the face? Probably not because you know that if you did then that would be the end of your life because God has the ability to let you live and to let you die. Therefore, we may think twice about punching him in the face because you don’t want to get struck dead or something. And knowing that God has this power makes you fear him right?

Or at least it should. And if you decide to punch God in the face then you can expect the consequences of punching God in the face.  Because if God does not punish you then you may turn around and punch God in the face again. I know that is a crazy way to explain this verse but what I am trying to say is that when you fear the Lord then you will begin to know what you should and should not be doing. When you fear the Lord you know that you cannot just act all crazy (i.e punch God in the face) because you fear the re-precautions that God will give you.

To put this in a way that you can understand.  Think of it this way.  If you are in need of money really bad, some people will rob a bank.  These people are those who have no fear of the law or no reverence for anything.  They are people who put their own needs above what is right.  For most normal people, what keeps them from robbing a bank is that they do not want to get caught.

They do not want to go to jail, it is too risky.  So the laws are what keep us honest. It is the same way with God.  God knows everything and He sees everything.  There is no running away from Him.  So when you do evil, God sees it and He has the authority to punish you.  Yes God is forgiving, but He can punish you when you do wrong.

Because like the robber, if the robber is not caught; he will go and rob again and again and again and again.  God has to punish us so that we do not go about wreaking havoc on the world and destroying ourselves in the process. And our fear of Him is what keeps us in check.  Also, check out my video down below on what happens when God has turned against you, and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel by clicking here.

2. What does it mean to fear the Lord & What Is The Fear Of The Lord In A Very Real Sense

I am a Christian and I fear the Lord. More than I fear the police, getting arrested, and more than I fear the devil Himself. Because God is more powerful than ALL of them combined.  I think sometimes because God loves us we forget that He is the all-mighty powerful God and He has the authority to end the world in the blink of an eye. That is kind of scary. For my next point I want to start off with the following verse:

Matthew 10:28 – Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

To put it bluntly, God can send us to hell.  He has the ability to do that.  In fact, He has the ability to do just about anything He wants.  I mean let’s get real. In the Old Testament God would literally strike people dead on the spot for disobeying him.  During the days of Noah, God flooded the Earth and killed all of its inhabitants because of their sin and disobedience. He killed Lot’s wife for looking back after He told her not to.

What angered God then, still angers Him now and the MAIN reason why we should fear God is because God has the authority to strike us all dead and to destroy the Earth all over again if He wanted to.  It was only when Jesus came that He extended us grace and you do not see people getting stricken down dead for telling a lie or something.  My point is the fact that God has the ability to do this, is something to be feared.

But God chooses not to.  Knowing this should make you want to get on your knees and thank God for not issuing out the same punishment to you for your sins. Because if He did then many of us would be hit by lightning and sent to hell right now for some of the stuff we have done.

Doesn’t it make you afraid that if God chose to do so, if He really wanted to, He could wipe us out forever because of our sinful nature? But just because God chooses to have mercy on us does not mean that we should take God for a fool.  Have you heard of that expression that you should not mistake kindness for weakness?  It is the same way with God. Just because God loves you and is kind to you does not mean that He is weak. My point is that we should never downgrade God so much that we forget that He is all-powerful.

3. What Does It Mean To Fear The Lord ~ What The Fear Of The Lord Is Vs The Fear Of Man

Let’s get to the first part of Matthew 10:28. This verse is also telling us that the only one that we should ever fear is God. Not people, not man, not our bosses, not the robbers on the street; we should only fear God.  It was man that crucified Jesus.  But Jesus made the point that whatever authority man thought they had over Him was given to them by God (John 19:11).  Meaning that whatever happened to Jesus was God’s will.  Because God has the ultimate say so.  Not man.

And therefore you should not be scared of what man can do to you but only what God can do to you (for all the reasons I stated above). And if a man is doing something to you then you should take enough comfort in the fact that if God is allowing it, then there must be a reason for it, and therefore you should not be afraid of it.  We should fear no one but God because God has the ability to destroy both soul and body in hell, not a man.  Also, check out my video below on how to turn fear into faith.

What does it mean to fear the lord ~ Case in point: Myself When I Stopped Fearing Man

To bring home my point about the fear of the Lord I actually want to take an excerpt from my single mom book which you can read about and buy here. 

As a single mother, I have gone through so many things, especially when it came to money. I never really got a steady stream of child support, mainly because my child's father was in prison for seven years after my son was born. After I got laid off from my job, the only emotion I felt was FEAR and ANXIETY.

I felt fear when I heard a truck in my neighborhood, thinking they were coming to turn the lights off because I was late paying my utilities. I felt fear over not knowing how I was going to get food or pay my son's tuition so that he could keep going to school. I was a nervous wreck about any and everything. Because everything was going so wrong, and I did not know what tomorrow would bring, I felt fear and anxiety. All of the time.

Even though that was a hard time in my life, I literally lacked for nothing. We always had something to eat, and I had the basic utilities that I needed. I feared, because I did not know. I did not know how, when, or what, so that made me afraid. But despite the fact that was a terrible time in my life I would NEVER want to repeat, it was the time in my life where I learned not to fear.

What does worrying get you? It almost got me a nervous breakdown, and I am not being funny. I was a nervous wreck. But what can you change by worrying? If they were going to turn my lights off, then they were going to turn my lights off. Me worrying was not going to fix that. What was going to fix it was trusting in God. Because God was the one that provided for me the entire time, despite my worrying and nervousness.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they Matthew 6:25

The reason I bring this up is that there was no point in fearing men because they did not have the ultimate say so. God did.  That is when I learned to fear God and only God because He has the authority to change your situation, punish you, and even reward you. If you know someone who can use to read this post then feel free to share it with them.  Also, get the first chapter of my single mom’s devotional free by clicking here or the picture below: