Learning to Fear God

Ever since becoming a Christian, I have been captivated the biblical concept of fearing God, which is not exactly a mainstream Christian sermon topic these days. For years I've pondered the questions "What does this mean?" and "What does this look like in everyday life?"

In light of this, I've been making up personal Bible studies on the subject and I picked up The Fear of God by John Bunyan for guidance.

To be honest, I'm just under half way and I haven't been impressed overall. It's good, but like a bad or boring teacher, you may not like the whole lecture, but the key to learning is keeping an ear open for the gold nuggets that are occasionally dropped along the way. While I'd never say Bunyan is a bad or boring teacher, that's what I'm doing and I've really been impressed with the "nuggets" that fall from his pen.

One of these keen insights is this one:

"Take note: if the presence of God is not a dreadful and fearful thing even in His most gracious and merciful appearances, how much more so, then, when He shows Himself to us as one who dislikes our ways, as one who is offended with us for our sins!" (5).

You may not agree with this, but it is biblical.

Think of Peter's reaction after Jesus' gracious miracle of the huge catch of fish in Luke 5. How did he respond? As a small businessman, I'd expect to hear him saw "Jesus, that was great! What are you doing tomorrow? Do you want to go into business together?"

But, he does just the opposite: He falls on his and cries "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (v. 8).

Being in God's presence while He manifested His grace brought dread. That's something to think about, huh?