A healthy dose of Fear

Acts 20:34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.


5 days before I got married way back in 1997, my friend Hank Miner took me offshore fishing. It is one of my favorite things to do and this particular day started great. The bite was hot as we fished an oil platform some 54 nautical miles SSE of the lighthouse in Mobile bay. About 2:00 one of our down riggers started to scream, as a large fish was stealing line form the reel at a high rate of speed. Since it was next to me, I picked it up and set the hook that began the fight. After about 4o minutes of fighting I landed a 52# king mackerel that had been foul hooked in the belly, which increased the fight itself. As the rush of landing such a big fish started to subside I started to notice some extremely dark clouds approaching our 31' Fountain. As we fired up the radar and plotted our course home on the GPS, it did not look so hot. The storm had came from no where and was bearing down on us pretty quick. As we swung the boat around to head NNE towards the lighthouse, it seemed that the bow was directly facing the storm. We had two choices: run to Cuba, or head through the storm. We chose the USA and watched the storm surge grow in front of the boat and storm size grow on the radar. It quickly went from bad to worse as waves in the 10-12' range greeted us as we started home. I was glad I was with Hank as he had been fishing since his youth, and as the owner of a boat dealership knew the Gulf and the boat better than anyone. About two hours into a pounding sea, that seemingly threatened to shatter the fiberglass hull on each wave, I saw fear in Hank's eyes. Once confident and sure, it was obvious that our lives were in danger. Fear gripped us tightly as we both hung on for dear life. I made sure we were on course and he steered us onward. After about 4 hours we finally made it behind Sand Island and the wind and waves were knocked down considerably. A huge relief - we were going to make it home. I must admit that it knocked down my desire to offshore fish for a while. I had a fear of the Gulf like never before. I also had a new found respect for it.

The bible has much to say about "The fear of the Lord". It sounds outdated to some people who think that fear is totally a bad thing. I look at Proverbs 1:7 which says ," the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge" . There are at least 14 other references in proverbs alone that talks about the blessing that the fear of the Lord brings. Isaiah 66:2 says that God will only look at people who are humble and tremble at His word. Paul charges the Philippians to "work out their salvation with fear and trembling" in Philippians 2:12. Look at what Peter says in the verses above about salvation coming to the Gentiles. He says that anyone can be saved if they fear God and do what is acceptable (worship Christ).

So the fear of God is a first and key ingredient to salvation. By grace he shows us a healthy fear we should have of Him in light of His sovereignty and our sin. By grace he then relieves our fears in the supremacy of Christ. You can see a healthy tension between fear and comfort both enabled by grace and both designed to drive us to Christ.

For those of you who think I am off base, if you have no fear of the wrath of God, from what are you saved from? Just like 12' waves in a 31' boat 54 miles from shore, fear can have a healthy purpose. God has designed a healthy fear as a critical component of our salvation and ongoing walk with Him.

So honestly ask yourself if you fear Him. If you have never feared Him, you don't know Him.