The Fear of the Lord

“By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life” (Proverbs 22:4). A good way to define the fear of the Lord is to be continually aware that I am in the presence of a holy, just, and almighty God and that my every thought, word, action, and deed is open before Him. In other words, the assurance that God is watching. If we knew that all of our secret thoughts, words, and actions would be displayed publicly so that everyone could watch them and evaluate them, it would make a profound difference in the way we live. We have an instinctive concern about what others think of us and how they will judge the things we do. This concern constitutes a fear of man. If we have this much concern over what man thinks, how much more we should be concerned about God’s evaluation of our thoughts, words, actions, attitudes, and motives. The fact is that everything we think, say, and do will one day be displayed for the entire world to see and judge. “Thou God seeth me” (Genesis 16:13). “You know my down sitting and mine uprising, thou understands my thoughts afar off” (Psalm 139:4). “Yea, the darkness hides not from thee; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee: (Psalm 139:12). “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (II Corinthians 5:10). “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?” (Psalm 94:9). “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondered all his goings” (Proverbs 5:21). “For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes” (Jeremiah 16:17). “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men” (Psalm 11:4). The promise that secrets will be exposed. “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad” (Luke 8:17). “Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops” (Luke 12:3). How would the fear of God Change your life? If you live in the daily reality that God is watching and evaluating everything you do, and that He is going to publicly expose and judge every secret sin--what thoughts would change? What words would not be spoken? What actions would cease? What attitudes would be corrected? What motives would be purified? Dr. Ken Copley is available for counseling, conferences, and local church meetings.