Should we fear the Lord?

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The last of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit received in the Sacrament of Confirmation is “Fear of the Lord.”

How would you go about explaining this concept to someone who is not a Christian?

Thanks for your help. 🙂
 
The translation my confirmation class used for the seventh gift was “Wonder and Awe of the Lord.” It’s less outright fear than it is realizing just how powerful God is and being really thankful that He is on your side (or rather, that you are on His.) After all, God would be a truly fearsome and terrifying enemy.
 
Well, in my mind, it IS fear. A reasonable fear. Fear is not the same as terror. Fear is really just a healthy respect for something that can harm you.

Another reasonable fear is getting electrocuted when working on house wiring. I’m not terrified of it, it doesn’t stop me from doing it, but it requires a certain amount of prudence; following good safety practices. Again, healthy respect for its power.

God is unlimited power. Just because he willed it, the Universe came into being. I’m nothing next to Him.

Yes we should fear the Lord, not because he intends to harm us, but because it shows respect for His power, and keeps our egos right-sized.
 
Hi Charlemagne II - should we fear the Lord ?

On the surface, perhaps no - do you fear your Father ? or your Mother ? if so why ??

If someone loves you unconditionally, do you fear them ?

If you have a child, and that child fears you - how do you feel ? - should the child fear you, and if they do, who is as fault ? what is the cause of the fear ?

In the case of the Lord, the source of all love, infinite wisdom and forgiveness, should we fear Him ??
The truth must be YES !! when we can say that despite knowing Him, we denied any knowledge of Him to others,
despite knowing His laws, we chose to ignore them in the face of temptations, and chose to forget about Him.

When we prepare for confession, it is like a practice run for the day of judgement - but we know that if we are sincere then our sins will be forgiven - and we get to ‘pass go’.
But when we look at the way we live now, what will we have to change to become a living example of the way of Christ, to love our neighbour as ourselves - to walk the talk ?

On the final day of judgement, can any of us say, no matter how much we love the Lord, that we are not afraid ? Jesus was so afraid in the Garden of Gethsemane that He sweated blood - in my book, being afraid is a justifiable disposition, because I am not the judge, I am being judged by the one and only, Almighty God, so i will need all the help I can get.

God bless
 
Charlemagne_II said:
The last of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit received in the Sacrament of Confirmation is “Fear of the Lord.”

How would you go about explaining this concept to someone who is not a Christian?

Thanks for your help. 🙂
Click to expand...
Waaaaay back when I was a student in Confirmation classes, we also used the translation “Wonder and Awe” because of the response the word “fear” evoked. My teacher at the time explained that this same line of thinking was why we said “Holy Spirit” instead of “Holy Ghost” (what do people think of when they hear the word ‘ghost’? BOO!) and “Anointing of the Sick” instead of “Last Rites” or “Extreme Unction” (which sounds much less dire).

I was always taught that we shouldn’t fear God, but we should have a healthy respect, the way I have respect for a venomous snake that could easily kill me if it wanted to.
 
Thank you all for your contributions. They have really helped me to flesh out my own thoughts on the matter.

God bless,
Charlemagne.

Bernward and Richard, please check your private messages. 👍
 
Charlemagne_II said:
The last of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit received in the Sacrament of Confirmation is “Fear of the Lord.”

How would you go about explaining this concept to someone who is not a Christian?

Thanks for your help. 🙂
Click to expand...
Fear of the Lord is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The feeling of “awe in God’s presence” is not a gift of the Holy Spirit. That is a good feeling but not a gift of God instilled at Baptism. Fear of offending God is probably a better way of looking at it. Similar to a fear of offending one’s parents. This fear doesn’t diminish the love between the parent and child. A child doesn’t need to be in “awe” of the presence of their parents, but should have a healthy fear of offending them.
“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom, …” Proverbs 9:10
 
Yes, we should fear God. Fear in this case basically means to have respect for Him, and to not want to offend Him.
 
What I’ve been led to believe is that we should fear the Lord because He is immeasurably powerful. Being responsible for all creation, He can will us out of existence simply by not thinking about us. But we’re still here. Why? Because He loves us. We should be forever grateful that God loves us, for we wouldn’t be able to discuss this matter if He didn’t.
 
If perfect love casts out fear and God is love, then only God can cast out fear, so who/what is to be feared except God? If I were a better person and feared only God Who has charge ultimately of my immortal soul, I wouldn’t be so afraid of our government for instance. I really want to fear only God.
 
Charlemagne_II said:
The last of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit received in the Sacrament of Confirmation is “Fear of the Lord.”

How would you go about explaining this concept to someone who is not a Christian?

Thanks for your help. 🙂
Click to expand...
👍

Fear of the Lord is Respect for the Lord.

🙂
 
Fear is inevitable when we fully appreciate the immense love God has for us because the very thought that we may not deserve His love is enough to tempt us to lose courage…
 
pam2k8 said:
If perfect love casts out fear and God is love, then only God can cast out fear, so who/what is to be feared except God?
Click to expand...
Yourself! You are the only one who can deprive you of His presence… 😉
 
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