The fear of God?

“The fear of God” can be an intimidating statement. It suggests that there is God and that there is need to be afraid of Him. While those who do not believe in God have nothing to fear, there is nothing to fear in knowing what it means to fear God. The FEAR of God has four parts,

Faith

The fear of God demand faith in his existence and of course being subject to His authority. This is not always easy to work out and work through. As being s with free will we all have a challenge with submitting to authority. However, in order to benefit from an authority a person must submit themselves to it. While it is possible to receive grace and generosity from an authority, you can only benefit from it if you are subject to it. A tourist experiences grace, citizens enjoy the benefits of nationhood.

Education

While the fear of God creates an expectation of God in terms of reward or retribution, it is important for a person who fears God to learn about what he or she is “afraid” of. In other words it does not make sense to fear what you do not know. So the fear of God entails knowing who God is, learning about God and cultivating a knowledgeable expectation of God as God. To achieve an education of God one needs study and since it is considered by many people as a personal choice. It would be sensible to establish some sort of personal relationship with this God in order to make peace with Him to avoid having to live in fear. In other words, if you must fear God, if makes sense to educate yourself on why you fear Him.

Aspiration

One of the things fear triggers in a person is aspirations. Aspiration to fight or to take flight. While these two options entail consequences they do also engender that capacity to give an account. Why would you fear unless your aspirations are not achieved or you cannot give account. Of course, if you do not believe in God you have nothing to fear. However, if you do fear God then you are motivated if not inspired by the outcome of an encounter or meeting with God. If you have nothing to report or cannot give account then you have reason to fear. It might stand you in good stead if you have something to report.

Responsibility

There would be nothing to fear if you have no responsibility to God. However the fear of God equips you to take responsibility seriously. While it may not be correct to assume that everyone is responsible by nature, it is practical to expect everyone to be responsible by design. The fear of God enables you to work towards being responsible because your personal values, ethics and respect for God enables you to take pride and responsibility for who you are in all that you do.

Allan Bukusi