Obedient Devotion

A great definition of the “fear of the Lord” comes from Holman’s Bible Dictionary,  “the sense of fear that comes as individuals encounter the divine in the context of revelation. When God appears to a person, that person experiences the reality of God’s holiness.  There is a mystery in divine holiness that causes people to be overwhelmed with a sense of awe and fear.  They respond by falling down or kneeling in reverence and worship, confessing sin and in seeking God’s will.  God’s work, His power, His majesty and His holiness evoke fear and demand acknowledgement.  The fear of God is not to be understood as the dread that comes out of fear and punishment, but as the reverential regard and the awe that comes out of recognition and submission to the divine.  It is the revelation of God’s will to which the believer submits in obedience.