Are you afraid of God or do you love Him...?

Someone once described the Fear of the Lord to a youth group I was leading. She explained fearing the Lord is not fear of punishment, but fear of hurting God. When you love someone, you fear harming them. You want to do the best for their welfare. God is pure love, and deserves our entire being to love and honor Him. When we love so deeply, so purely, our fear is not for our self but for the one we love. Our sin hurts the Lord. It breaks His heart. When we truly fall in love with Love, we fear sinning because it not only makes God cry, it also separates us from Him. Sin, no matter how big or small, drives a wedge between the created and the Creator. Even thoughts cause a rift in our relationship with the one who loves us so deeply. We are so fallible, so imperfect, yet so loved by God that He sent His Son to die for us. Those stripes on His back are due to our imperfection and our outright rebellion against what is Good. The crown of thorns represent the sin of thoughts against others that are impure and unholy. The cross He carried represents the burdens we have placed upon others because of our sinfulness that Christ Himself took to Calvary. We cannot be perfect because of our nature, but we can respond to Grace. The Grace of God does heal our sinful nature, it aids us in becoming more and more like God. Only His Grace can perfect us, even though until the day we see Him face to face, we will be imperfect. Our mission on Earth is not to be perfect, but merely seek out ways to be better than we are. When our response to Grace shows us our true nature and the gravity of our sinful state, and we repent for our ways (repent means to turn away from sin, to change, to do something new) not from fear of punishment, but from fear of being separated from God, then we are on our way to eternal life with our true Love.

It is said "Fear God and live". But it really depends which God you believe in. In my case, it is to mean reverent fear, acknowledging Him for who He is. I am NOT here to start a religious argument, but just to share my point of view. At least for the God I believe in,I have faith in Him. Not that I am good, because no one is good. The bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Why then do good people suffer while the bad enjoy life? The judgement is not now, but when we meet our Maker. I think for many, we find it hard to believe the statement that none is good. We measure good and bad by our standards which is nothing really good at all. We have more evil on our minds than good if we examine ourselves closely, and that include most DEFINITELY ME. His ways are not ours, so we cannot measure with the same yardstick. And with Him, I know I can be confident because of His promises. I am in the making till the day He returns.

I fear God, but it is close to respect. I am aware of His holiness, and also, of how far I fall short of his standards. But I also love Him, because He is so merciful, forgiving me time and time again for my sins.

If you are afraid of Him you should behave yourself and stop being wicked. I am not afraid of Him but I can't believe that all those people in Australia are wicked. Do you think they are?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fearing God does not mean being afraid of him just as you are afraid of ghost or any bad creatures that may harm you. Fearing God means afraid to disobey him because you don't want to displease him and you don't want him to get disappointed with you so that you strictly adhere to His rules and commandments. This fear of the Lord comes from strong love and reverence to His Holy name. I do love God and out of my love I fear him and this led me to gain wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong in accordance to the Word of God and learning to choose the right all for the glory of God.

Nope i do not fear god coz i haven't done anything wrong!Things concerning me might be weird for others but they make sense in my way of thinking.At the same time i dont know if i love him...it is these years that my mom asked me to pray to god and i'm kinda used to it now.Its more of a habit for me to visit god every thursday ... i'm glad doing it.Great day.

There is much written in the Bible about us, as God's Children! Lets put this in a different prospective! You are a Loving Parent to your children. You love them very much and you want them to grow up to be Loving Adults. You want their love, but do you demand that they Worship you? You teach them to do good, but do you threaten them with dire punishment if they digress?, Should they be frightened of their own parents? Should they Worship, and Fear their Parents? Do you believe that a frightened, fearful, child can return your love, or be a loving child, or grow into an intelligent loving Adult? Now put yourself in your child's place with God as your Loving Father!

In fact love and fear of God Almighty should go side by side in one's life.He loves those who fear Him the most and lead their lives as per His teachings and surrender to the Divine Will.Further Polytheism is the biggest sin which He hates the most b/c the polytheists do not believe in His oneness and seek His self-created partners.He says He will never forgive them and will punish them in Hell fire.

If you really knew God, you could never be afraid of Him. God does not punish. God will teach. Consequences of our bad choices might really hurt but no more than we were willing to give others or the world. Everything you do in life returns to you in time. It's not really hard. Learn to love unconditionally. You will like the results.

I don't feel the need to fear God. I only feel the need to honor, love and praise his name. Anything else would not bring the glory that should be felt by knowing God in your heart.

Well i don't believe much in God. When there is no hope left for anyone then people start praying to him thinking that he is the last hope. That's what i really don't like. Worshipping God is one thing and taking him as last hope is completely another thing. I would never advise that to anyone. I only believe in God because my mother believes in them. Cheers!

I love God more than I fear Him. Actually, I should not use the terms afraid, feared, scared, or the like because God intended us to believe in him not to be afraid. If you show Him that you are afraid of Him, He will realize that you see Him as a strict ruler. God only wants us to love Him and have faith in Him. He knows we are all sinful. But at the same time, He is helping us to accomplish his commandments.

Hello, chayapathys. I have the impression that you are living in a community where the majority of people have faith in God. Personally I would identify myself as agnostic if I must.(which means I would not deny the possible existence of any divine being watching us. But simultaneously not so certain either.) I would think if God exists we shouldn't really have to fear him if he is as merciful as he is described to be. (I would think the previous statement given might not be easily understood by some believers of God. Or anyone... who wishes to challenge the statement.) As for whether I love him or not is a question I never really think about. It would be extremely hard for an individual such as me to really love God in my current status in life. It would be fair to say I would simply just accept the possible existence and just live with such uncertainty.

I just love god more than myself and anything else in this world. My experiences in life has only brought him so close to me. Of course, at some point of time, being a human, i have questioned myself about the existence of god and till date, every time i remember those times, i have regretted and hated myself for being so stupid and for having doubted my almighty who had given me the strength to face the problems myself. Its because of him i'm here and its because of him everything is possible. I love him and certainly i'm not afraid of him. That doesn't mean that i'm a perfect person, but i'll be happy that i'm punished in the hands of my dear almighty. I will be honored if he is the one who is punishing me for my mistakes other than the other humans who are the so-called perfect people.

I Love Our Heavenly Father! But that doesn't mean I don't also fear Him. It's like all the times my folks called my friends' house to tell me I had to come home... because I was in trouble. Walking home was terrible! I didn't love my parents any less than when I walked home under any other circumstances, but I sure wasn't as happy to get home. ;~D

I have never been afraid of G-d. He can and does Whatever He wants with me so fear Him? Love? I rather say I respect Him. But fear Him , no. If I feared Him I would want to stay away from anything that He is connected to , so I wouldn't have any religion! I avoid what I fear.

The stories of punishments by God told in the Old Testaments of the Holy Bible inspired both love and fear among humans. God was portrayed as loving and caring God who will not forsake His people in times of crisis, and also a punishing God for the disobedient and hostile. It was only during those times that God was seen as punishing, but with other books in the Holy Bible, all you can see is, a loving God, a merciful God who approved the crucifixion of His only begotten Son for the redemption of man. Maybe it has a purpose, and if you are keen enough in your study, you will see a good picture of God, but for those who have compartmentalized thinking, they see a different picture, a harsh and cruel God. I have seen a lot of them here in MyLot, criticizing His actions during those times. I think they just lost the big picture of what the Bible really wants us to see.

Fear why would I fear of some higher being when I am the one in control of my life and not him. If people really knew god, they would never be afraid of this higher being. God does not punish. We are born to be free. God is not responsible for our mistakes or for all the evil that is going around the world. We are responsible. Everything we do in life has consequences, call it the law of attraction, god, goddess or gods, they all are the same---the product of the human mind to have hope that there is something beyond the grave and nothing more. All religions teach the same thing, the only difference is that they have different interpretations of the higher being....

Very well said. Yes, i am afraid of God so i see to it that i do those things that will only please HIM. But we are only humans, susceptible to temptations so we sometimes do something bad. However, we learn to correct our bad actions though always.