Fearing God is the foundation of most religions around the world. The concept “I need to fear the Lord and love Him with all my heart” has never made sense to me. How am I to love something that I need to fear. I don’t love Katy, but fear her, so this idea of loving God but fearing Him has baffled me for years. During this journey of getting to know our Father, the Spirit and Jesus has been a wonderful experience many of the beliefs planted in my heart during my life have been pulled out, examined, and either thrown out or replanted.

Katy and I have talked in depth about this for years. When we have asked others about why do we need to “Fear the Lord.” We have been told “it really means to revere the Lord.” Immediately when I hear this I think then why doesn’t it say that? How come we say you must “fear the Lord” rather than “revere the Lord.” During this quest to uncover the Good News in a concept that is referenced at least 25 times in the Old Testament. What I have learned is many teachers believe to revere God you must fear him first or non-believers need to fear God but when you come to believe in Jesus than you will revere God.

Hear lies the dilemma, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” -2 Timothy 1:7 If God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, then how could we be made fearful of God? What if we weren’t fearfully and wonderfully made? What if we were just wonderfully made? What if God loves all of His creation so much no one would need to fear Him?

When I looked up the word “revere” I found that it means “to feel deep respect or admiration for something.” When I looked up the definition for “fear” I found out it is defined “as an unpleasant feeling triggered by the perception of danger.”

The deeper Katy and I have gotten on the journey of meeting the God head, the more evident it has become that all three are Pure Love and we have zero reason to fear any of them, we don’t have an unpleasant feeling triggered by a perception of danger. We have no reason to fear our creator. We don’t believe any one else does either.

Jesus told the teachers of the Law they didn’t know the father. The Old Testament is in large part what they were teaching. So it is easy to come to the conclusion that the idea we need to fear God, isn’t a bad translation from Hebrew to English rather a distorted view of God by people who didn’t know Him or His character.

The good news is when we realize we have no reason to fear our loving Father, we begin to experience the joys of being His child. When we replace the root of fear with the root of love, everything in our life explodes. Rivers of living water flow from our hearts and minds producing life and life more abundantly. Anxiety and stress disappear the more we water our soul with how God see’s us. Which is perfect, brilliant, worthy, deeply loved, and forever His. Nothing can separate any of His creation from His favor and kindness. This simple change from fearing God, to knowing He love us is essentially the Gospel of Jesus.

You have been born free from the outpouring of the love of the Trinity. No behavior or distorted belief will ever change your true identity in Christ. He is yours and you are His.

In Love,

Kurt & Katy