What does it really mean to fear God

What does it really mean to fear God

What does it really mean to fear God? And I’m not talking about being scared of Him, like you’d be scared of a monster under your bed. I mean, what does it really look like to have that kind of fear—fear in the sense of awe, respect, and honor for someone who is so much bigger than we are?

In the Bible, when it talks about the “fear of the Lord,” the word used in Hebrew is yirah (יִרְאָה). This word doesn’t mean being terrified in the way we might be afraid of a person who wants to hurt us. It’s more like standing in front of something so big, so powerful, so holy that you can’t help but be filled with wonder. It’s the kind of feeling you get when you’re looking at a vast mountain range or staring up at the stars on a clear night. You know you’re small, but at the same time, there’s a recognition of how awesome everything around you is. God is like that—bigger, more powerful, more holy than we can even wrap our minds around. And that kind of awe is supposed to make us pause.

Now, let’s think about the church today. Has the fear of the Lord left the church? Have we gotten so comfortable with God that we’ve forgotten how incredible He is? We see this so often in the way people talk about God, even in church settings. God isn’t just some casual friend we hang out with. He’s the Creator of everything, the one who made the universe. Yet sometimes, it feels like we treat Him like He's just another person we can call up whenever we need something. We forget the awe. The trembling.

When we look back at the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, we see how people responded when they came into the presence of God. In Exodus 3, Moses encounters God at the burning bush. God calls him to approach, but Moses does something pretty amazing—he hides his face. Why? Because Moses realizes that he’s standing in the presence of the Almighty. And that’s a big deal. God tells him, “Don’t come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5). In that moment, Moses wasn’t buddy-buddy with God; he recognized that he was in the presence of something holy, something pure, something untouchable. He felt the weight of that. And so should we.

Even when we look at how people reacted to God’s presence in the New Testament, it’s the same thing. When John the Apostle saw Yeshua in His glory, John fell down like he was dead (Revelation 1:17). Imagine that. This was a man who had spent time walking and talking with Jesus, and yet, when he saw Jesus in His full glory, he fell flat. There was no high-five. No, “Hey, bro!” It was pure awe and reverence.

And then there’s Isaiah in the Old Testament. When he encounters God’s throne in Isaiah 6, his first words are, “Woe to me! I am ruined!” He wasn’t casually strolling through a church service, singing hymns. He saw the holiness of God, and it wrecked him. It made him feel small, unworthy, and humbled. But it also pushed him to be more than he was—because when you encounter the holiness of God, it changes you.

Here’s the thing—this isn’t just an Old Testament thing. This fear of the Lord is something the Bible says is part of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Not a quick prayer, not a Sunday morning routine, but an honest, real recognition that God is holy, and we are not. When you have that kind of reverence, you start to see the world differently. You understand that the things that matter to God should matter to you. You stop living your life like He’s just one of many things you have to juggle, and you start recognizing that He’s the reason everything else holds together.

So, back to that question: has the fear of the Lord left the church? Honestly, I think, yes, we’ve lost some of that awe. We’re so used to God’s love, His grace, His mercy, that we forget how massive, how powerful, how holy He is. And that’s a dangerous place to be. When we lose the fear of the Lord, we start making God out to be something He’s not. We make Him into something we can control, or something we can only approach when we want something. But that’s not who God is.

The thing is, when we properly fear the Lord—when we understand His holiness and His greatness—it doesn’t push us away from Him. It pulls us in closer. Why? Because the same God who is powerful enough to create everything also loves us enough to invite us into His presence. That’s what’s so incredible about the fear of the Lord. It’s not meant to scare us away; it’s meant to draw us into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Him.

So, what does that look like for us today? It means we need to remember that God isn’t just another part of our day. He’s not something we can take or leave. He’s the Creator. He’s holy. And He deserves our awe and respect. When we walk into His presence, whether it’s in church, in prayer, or in life, we should approach it with complete reverence. We shouldn’t be casual about it. God is good, but He’s also holy, and that’s a tension we need to feel. It’s a tension that makes us better, more in awe, and more in love with the One who created us.

 

 

image is ai generated