Fear the Lord

Read: Psalm 96:4-9

Hailey looked up from reading her Bible on the front lawn. “Amare, are you afraid of God?” she asked her brother.

“No, I don’t think so,” replied Amare. “Why should I be afraid of Him?”

“This verse says, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ What does that mean?”

Just then their neighbor Hunter came along. “Hey, Amare,” he called, “get your bike and come with me. Drake dared me to climb the fence around the power station’s transformer, so I’m gonna do it.”

Amare’s eyes widened. “You’d better not! My dad says it’s dangerous to go near that thing.”

“I’m not scared of anything,” Hunter said. “You coming?”

Amare shook his head. “No. I don’t want to get zapped. Why do you think there’s a high fence around it with all those ‘No Trespassing’ signs?”

Hunter laughed. “To keep out scaredy-cats like you!” He sped off on his bike.

Amare watched Hunter leave, then jumped to his feet. “I’m gonna tell Mom.”

When Mom heard about Hunter’s plan, she decided to call the police department. Soon they heard sirens heading toward the power station. “Maybe seeing the police will teach Hunter to wise up,” said Hailey. “He said he wasn’t afraid of anything.”

“Well, there are some things he should be afraid of,” Mom replied.

“Are we supposed to be afraid of God?” Hailey asked. “One of the verses in my Bible reading today talked about fearing Him.”

“We fear God in the sense that we respect, honor, and trust Him. We know He has power over everything and that, because He is good, He must punish sin.”

“So, fearing God is kind of like how I respect and obey you and Dad because you’re my parents?” asked Amare.

Mom nodded. “When we fear God, we see how serious our sin is and how much we need Jesus to save us from it. We see that His way is better than ours and that we need to trust and obey Him. Then, by trusting in Jesus, we can feel His peace, knowing He loves us so much that He took the punishment for our sin and will always be with us.”

Hailey grinned. “So if we fear the Lord, we have no reason to be afraid!”

–Barbara J. Westberg

How about you? Are you afraid of God? If you’re a Christian, you have no reason to be afraid. When the Bible tells us to fear God, it means to respect His authority and the fact that He must punish sin. Even though you’ve sinned against God, Jesus took the punishment for your sin. Fear God by trusting and obeying Him. (To learn more, go to Have You Heard the Good News?)

Today’s key verse: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Psalm 111:10 (NKJV)

Today’s key thought: Fear God