What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord? (Union)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord.
The Bible says that a wise person fears God and keeps his commandments. But what does it actually mean to rightly fear God while also trusting him? In What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord?, Michael Reeves calls Christians to see God as the object of their fear—a fear marked not by anxiety, but by enjoyment of God. In Scripture, God’s people are commanded to put off sinful fears and instead cultivate a healthy and happy fear of their awesome God. As believers learn to truly fear the Lord, they will take part in the pivotal role the church plays in exhibiting his divine qualities of holiness, blessedness, happiness, wholeness, and beauty to the world.
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This is a concise version of Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord
- Explores the connection to wisdom, joy, and humility
- Examines the difference between sinful fear and godly fear
- Corrects negative perceptions of the fear of God
- Do Not be Afraid!
- Sinful Fear
- Right Fear
- Overwhelmed by the Creator
- Overwhelmed by the Father
- How to Grow in Fear
- The Awesome Church
- Eternal Ecstasy
Top Highlights
“It is a fear that, as Charles Spurgeon put it, ‘leans toward the Lord’ because of his very goodness.2” (Page 27)
“Quite simply, our culture has lost God as the proper object of fear. That fear of God (as I hope to show) was a happy and healthy fear that controlled our other fears, reining in anxiety. With our society having lost God as the proper object of healthy fear, our culture is necessarily becoming more neurotic and anxious. In ousting God from our culture, other concerns—from personal health to the health of the planet—have assumed a divine ultimacy in our minds. Good things have become cruel and pitiless idols. And thus we feel helplessly fragile, and society fills with anxieties.” (Page 17)
“Spurgeon said, the ‘sort of fear which has in it the very essence of love, and without which there would be no joy even in the presence of God.” (Page 28)
“Here we see that the fear of the Lord is not something the Messiah wishes to be without.” (Page 15)
“The nature of the living God means that the fear which pleases him is not a groveling, shrinking fear. He is no tyrant. It is an ecstasy of love and joy that senses how overwhelmingly kind and magnificent, good and true God is, and that therefore leans on him in staggered praise and faith.” (Page 34)