Fear is an emotion that can use some recalibration in the church. Many of us have been taught that fear is always negative—always something to be avoided. In reality, fear is an essential element of life. This is especially true when we consider what the Bible says about the fear of the Lord.

We know God is omniscient and omnipresent—that He knows everything and exists everywhere. Even so, we sin. And we think we are “getting away” with that sin because God is not physically present to see it. Such a pattern is evidence that we lack holy fear.

It’s easy to confuse positional holiness with behavioral holiness. When we accept God’s gift of salvation, the Lord declares our position before Him to be holy because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. However, he wants our behavior to change so that we will mature in our faith and become mo...

Those who fear God's word obey the Lord...immediately, even when it doesn't make sense, even when they don't see a personal benefit in it, and even if it's painful.

Genuine fear of the Lord does not scare us and drive us away from God. Instead, holy fear draws us closer to God. It aligns us with Him and gives us the opportunity to experience true intimacy with the Creator of all things.

The fear of God is our natural state—it’s what God created us to experience. This means we receive many benefits when we are properly aligned with God in holy fear. Those benefits are not our primary motivation for choosing to fear God and obey Him, but they are nonetheless real. And they are sub...