How can we understand the proper fear of the Lord?
Is God Mad at us? Absolutely not, God is not even in a bad mood.
God does have hatred and anger that is righteous against evil.
Some sins are definitely worse than others.
For instance, would you rather someone take $10 or $10,000 from you?
I imagine that to you it would be worse if someone took the greater amount.
So some sins are greater in value.
God punished the Canaanites because of their sin.
What was it? They were offering up their children to the false god Molech to die.
Many people want God to stop the evil in this world and this is a situation where God stepped in.
God has a lot of patience and a lot of love.
But we should be in this respect towards God.
When the City of Ninevah repented Jonah was sad because he wanted them to face punishment and be destroyed.
Jonah told God, “He prayed to the Lord and said, “I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” (Jonah 4:2 NASB1995).
One morning I woke up to the sound of a phone call.
It was from HEB, as soon as I saw the caller ID I had the worst feeling in my stomach.
I knew that they don’t just call at 6 o’clock in the morning for any reason, they were calling because I hadn’t shown up to work. I’m not afraid of HEB.
I’m not afraid they’re gonna hurt me or do something wrong to me. I have a healthy respect for my job.
There is no fear in love. There is no fear in God, and we don’t have to be afraid of God.
But there should still be a feeling of reality.
What many call fear of God is a healthy respect of God.
When you walk along a cliff you should have a respect for the cliff because if you don’t, you may fall.
Some call this fear and I think I understand what they’re saying, but there is a healthy part of our life that we need to have respect so that we need to know that God is God.
He is powerful and mighty. I’m afraid of the rocks, I’m afraid of my job, I have a healthy respect for them.
God is not fuming or foaming at the mouth.
He doesn’t have His eyes glaring at you in disgrace. God doesn’t love you any more if you do great things for Him, and He doesn’t love you any less when you sin.
He doesn’t leave sin unpunished and that’s why He died for us on the Cross.
His love for you is consistent and steady.
You can still grieve the Holy Spirit and cause God to be sad.
Don’t live a life in fear. Remember that God is merciful and He forgives us and remembers our sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 NASB1995).
Let’s live a life that give God joy.
God deserves our respect.
