Beneficial Fear

The Bible speaks of two kinds of fear.

There is the fear of God which is beneficial.

That fear is described in Psalm 33:8

“Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.”

And then there is the fear of life which is destructive.

We find an example of that in the parable of the talents:

“So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.

See, here is what belongs to you.’” Matthew 25:25

We need never fear that God is arbitrary and capricious

We often refer to the sovereignty of God and I think some anticipate

that to mean God does whatever He wants.

But God will not violate His nature.

We know the declaration: “I am the LORD, I change not.”

God the Father revealed Himself clearly through His son Jesus.

In Jesus we find perfect love, mercy and compassion.

But we also find perfect justice, judgment and discipline.

 In one sense we can say that we will never be ‘surprised’ by Gods’ actions if we understand His nature.

Because God does not change, because He does not violate who He is, I can trust Him.

 I need not fear that God will act contrary to His nature.

I need not fear that on any given day God will be moody and, in that moodiness, annihilate His creation-- just because He felt like it.

I will never be omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.

But I can love and trust the one who is because He loves me

and He has good plans for me.

That is a reverential and holy fear.

That is a fear of God that is beneficial and not destructive.