HispanicVista Columnists

Fear and Love Work Together

 

By Domingo Ivan  Casañas/HispanicVista.com

May 9, 2005

 

 

 

As human beings we experience so many fears in our lives, many actually have fears of flying, being in a confined place, driving, elevators, public speaking, death, and so many more.  But, do they have the fear of God?  Do we know what the fear of God is?  The fear of God is so very essential to a meaningful life; a Godly fear is awe and profound reverence for our Creator.  God does not want people to serve him simply because they are in awe of Him.  God is love and he wants us to respond to Him by loving Him in return.   But can a Godly fear and love be compatible?  I say yes! The reason is because we need to think of a small child that loves and respects his father, a child that trusts his own father looks to him for guidance and confident, the child also admires his father and wants to be loved by him and want to make him proud.   That same child also fears his father’s actions when it comes to disappointing him, lying to him, doing bad things that are not moral.  So as you can see in these examples that yes fear and love can work together.  Yes, having the fear of God is also having the love for God and from God.

 

What we need to recognize is that a Godly fear leads not to bondage but to freedom.  Not to sadness but to joy.  In Isaiah 11:3 it is stated “and he will delight in the fear of the Lord”.   In Psalm 112:1 we read the following: “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands”.  One thing for sure though, we cannot fear God nor love Him if we do not know Him.  That is why it is so important to find a church that you feel the holy spirit, a church and a pastor that gives you comfort, peace, and a feeling that makes you hungry for more, hungry enough to open your Bible and study His word, and where you feel the presence of our Lord.

 

Knowing Him and Obeying Him is what will bring as closer to Him.  By having fear of the Lord we have graduated to wisdom.  By departing from all evil we finally gain understanding.  Those that strive to keep the laws and commands of God are obedient.  They fear God.  Their regard for His laws and commandments proves that they know Him and are responding to His love.  By having a Godly fear you then need to hate evil, pride, arrogances and all evil ways.  One has a choice on either fearing God or you will fear everything else.  In order to find the treasure of peace and love one must have the fear of God.  It takes a wise person that understands Gods laws to know what I am talking about.  For only a fool thinks that they can fool God.  Only fools think they can hide anything from God.  Only fools think God does not know what they are up to or what they are thinking and this applies to pastors, popes and everyone in my opinion.

 

It is important to understand that by having a personal relationship with Jesus we can start to understand the fundamental rules that God has for us, and of course one of those is the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.  For He is the one that can make us understand the unconditional love that He has for us.   It is in the fear of God that keeps us serious, and focused.  When we look at Proverbs 15 we began to realize what the fear of the Lord is all about.  To me it becomes obvious that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.  Today, we have too many Christians who are not serious in their walk.  They are not diligent to bring the flesh into subjection.  They are not able to discipline their own actions.   They expect God to do everything.  Let me remind those that “what God will do He will do”.  We need to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 

 

The next revival will happen in my opinion when the fear of God settles down in our churches.  Because at that point, it won’t be just those who were part of the church, but also those who heard about it.  The peace will arrive as it is stated in Acts 9:31 because of the fear of the Lord.  This fear that I am speaking about is a healthy fear; it is good, right, proper and is the one that will remove and help you overcome any other fear.  One good way of knowing if you are filled with the spirit is by having the fear of God.  The fear of God causes us to have a spirit of submission; it produces a spirit of being in one accord.  We must remember that whatever we do should not be to impress men.  We need to be obedient and be the best servant we can be and do it heartily as unto the Lord because that will show others that you have the fear of God.

 

The fear of God is obedience at any cost to what God wants.  It is a respect and reverence, which says what God, wants is more important than what I want.  What God requires and desires is more important than what I think I ought to do.  This is why it is so important to be aware of any attitude, person, places, or things that would steal the priority that the Lord deserves.  It is possible to sit through a church service, and not be aware of the presence of God.  When we do not have a sense of the presence of God we lose a sense of the fear of God.  What we need to say after service is “wasn’t it good to be where the Lord was today”, not, oh, I liked how she sang that worship song, or wow the pastor was really on today.   Drawing close to God means that we both love Him and fear Him.  God is Love and our Godly fear compliments His true Love for mankind.  May God bless you today and always!

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Domingo Ivan Casañas, a contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/), is a writer for several newspapers in his community of Northern California.  Mr. Casañas has been nominated for the Citizen of the year in his hometown.  He has also been nominated for the Cesar Chavez Award in recognition of continuing Community Service and Embodiment of the Cesar Chavez Values.  Domingo is the AUTHOR of a new book about Cuba and a journey to freedom that will debut in June 2005 titled: CUBA THE TARNISHED PEARL.  Excerpts of this book may be read at: http://www.cubanbook.com/ email:   LatinoAchievers@aol.com