Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Did you know the Bible talks about two different kinds of fear? The first kind of fear is a guilty fear, and this is the idea of being afraid. We see this at the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 3. After Adam and Eve sinned, it says that they were naked and afraid. They were hiding from God. They knew that they had done something wrong and they didn't want to be caught.
Guilty Fear
I'm sure you've had that moment in your life where you've done something wrong—that you know you did wrong—and you're afraid. You're fearful of the consequences. I just had to explain this to my son the other day. I was looking around for my badge before going into work, because I can't get in without it. I place it in the same spot every single day when I get home, so that the next morning it’s waiting for me. This particular morning it was missing, and I had a feeling that my son had taken it. But every time I asked, he said no. I didn't want to shame him and I wanted to trust him. So, I went to work. I got a loaner badge, and then I went home and I thought, you know what? Maybe I'll ask him one more time.
I sat down with him and I asked, "Hey, did you take my badge?" You could see it in his eyes that he was hiding something. I said, "Buddy, you're not in trouble, and I'm not going to be mad. I would just appreciate if you could be honest right now. Do you know where my badge is?" And he goes, "Well, you know, maybe it's in the guest room, in the couch, in between the cushions." I said, "Well, how would you know that?" And he looks at me and he says, "Well, I might have put it there."
See, he was afraid of me in that moment. As soon as he understood that I wasn't going to punish him, I wasn't going to yell, and I wasn't going to be angry, it changed the way that he responded to doing something wrong.
Healthy Fear
The Bible also talks about another kind of fear, a fear that we should have of God, a healthy fear. That's what we read about in our verse today. It comes from Proverbs chapter 9, verse 10. It says, "Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment." This is the kind of fear that God wants us to have of Him, not afraid of Him punishing us or the consequences of our sin, but a reverence and respect.
I think about this fear often when I think back to my youth pastor days. You have all these kids running around, and especially when you go to camp, it's really hard to keep track of them. It's like herding cats. You've got hundreds of them off playing games, and then you're trying to get them in the chapel. Hopefully they're spending time worshiping the Lord, but every once in a while they get out of hand and you're trying to find your kids in this sea of chaos, and you pull out what's called the youth pastor voice. It's not about yelling or aggression. There's a firm tone that when you use it, your kids who have come to know your voice stop and turn to you and they respond—not because they're afraid of you, but because they've learned to trust in your authority.
On a very small scale, that's what it's like with God. As we come to understand His authority, and we trust in Him, that we know He has the power to punish us, but we see that He uses that power instead for our good. It allows us to develop this healthy fear of God. It's this fear that the Bible tells us is the beginning of wisdom.
Growing in Wisdom
I want all of us to develop this sort of fear for God. I don't want us to go through life missing out on such a beautiful piece of our relationship with God, because our idea of fear often comes with that negative connotation. The fear that we can have of God leads to so much fruitfulness in our lives, as it helps us to use wisdom and to exercise good judgment.
For each one of us, I would just say, spend some time seeing how God uses His power for good. Spend some time building that personal relationship with Him, trusting in His authority. As that fear grows, watch how your wisdom increases and how it helps you to judge the world around you a little bit better, so that we might live in reverence and honor to our great God, and live lives holy and pleasing as sacrifices to Him.
