Godly fear is an important characteristic to have.  It does not mean that a person is terrified of God—it simply means to be filled with reverence for Him.  The person who fears God understands the greatest, power, and strength of Him.  Sadly, this world lacks godly fear.  Most people today have the Pharaoh mentality that says, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice…?   Many are just not interested in obeying God because they do not fear Him.

Do you fear God?  Most people reading a blog like this would immediately answer yes.  However, godly fear bears a specific kind of fruit.

Proverbs 8:13 (ESV)
¹³  The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

If we fear God, we will abstain from evil.  The person who is in awe of God, will not live an ungodly life that he knows will disappoint Him and make Him mad.  Those who fear God are in the habit of pleasing Him by abstaining from evil and keeping His commandments.  In fact, fearing God and obeying God are inseparable.  This is why Moses said, “That you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments…” (Deuteronomy 6:2).

The Israelites were to demonstrate their fear of God by keeping all of His commandments.  The word all should not be overlooked.  The one who fears God does not pick and choose which commandments he is going to keep.  He strives to keep all of them because of the reverence he has for the One who gave the commandment.  Disobeying God, in any way, is a sign of disrespect.  When one who claims to know God, lives in sin, disobeying Him on an ongoing basis, one has to question whether that person even believes in God at all.

How could a person who truly believes that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, seeing everything that we do, and even knowing what we are thinking at all times, willfully refuse to do what God tells him to do?  Anyone who disobeys God regularly just does not fear him, and the person who does not fear God must not really know Him.   No wonder Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…” (Proverbs 1:7).

While God deserves our reverence, it is in our own best interest to fear Him because godly fear is beneficial.  Solomon tells us that “The fear of the Lord prolongs life…” (Proverbs 10:27).  Why?  Because godly living produced by fearing God is beneficial.  Paul said, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).  When you live by the word of God and your life is shaped by a profound reverence for Him, you can avoid many dangers that can shorten your life.

Sin is not only dangerous to the soul, but it is also often bad for the body.  Think of the problems caused by smoking, drinking, or doing drugs.  The one who fears the Lord does not have to worry about the consequences of those things.  Think about the terrible disease we call AIDS.  Those who fear the Lord have virtually no, or at least, very little, chance of dying of AIDS due to their manner of life.  Furthermore, those who fear the Lord, do not find themselves in dangerous environments where bad things happen.

Do you fear God?  Living a morally upright life, produced by godly fear, is beneficial for both body and soul.  Never forget these words from Jesus.

Matthew 10:28 (ESV)
²⁸  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.