Fear

How much does fear play into your belief system? What are you afraid of? Eternal damnation? The disapproval (or approval) of your peers? Your parents? Your community? etc?

 

I have a healthy "fear of the Lord" I don't fear what my family thinks.

 

What exactly are you afraid of? And what proof (not faith) but proof, do you have that your fears are justified?

 

I have no fear of the lord, I have a really paranoid fear of those who fear the lord though.

 

The type of "fear" you have of your parent, you know respect, but if you deserve punishment your going to get it. Not to the extent I'm looking for lightening bolts everytime I sin.
Kinda hard to explain.

"Fear of the Lord, is the begnning of Wisdom"

So you shouldn't be paranoid of people who fear the Lord.

 

Very little. The fire and brimstone sermons never got to me at all. What drew me to Christ was a feeling of peace, freedom, and the ability to be truly honest after surrendering my life and following Christ.

As far as biblical "fear of God" its only a matter of common sense to me. If something is powerful enough to speak the universe into existence and I am not it commands immediate respect/fear.

 

How much does fear play into your belief system? < 5%

What are you afraid of? jail

Eternal damnation? nope

The disapproval (or approval) of your peers? who are they to judge me?

Your parents? they love me

Your community? Im straight so, there's not much to worry about :xyzthumbs

 

Excellent questions, Builder. Imma post my answer later tonight.

 

eternal damnation, yes of course i'm afraid of it. but it is not the driving force in my walk with Christ. i guess we all want approval, in some form or another of our friends and family. but thats not why i chose to give my life to God or why i continue to serve Him. living for Christ has to come from the heart, any other driving force will not be enough to sustain you when the storms of life fall upon you..........and they will come to each of us in our life time.

 

How much does fear play into your belief system?

It was the fear that came from the realization I was no longer in control of things that were important to me that drove me to my knees in search of God in the first place. When Hockeygirl's lupus first became active, she got sicker faster than any 22-year-old woman I'd ever seen. I'd already had my other two 'security blankets' (Grandma and Dad) taken away or severely compromised by cancer and a stroke, respectively, so she was all I had left. The threat of losing her terrified me -- all the more because there was nothing I could do about it. But over time, the fear was conquered by faith, as God proved Himself over and over to both me and my wife through her ordeal, and even today.

When I began investigating Christianity and starting to really get to know the character and mindset of God, there was both fear and comfort. Like someone mentioned before, it was very much like the way I looked up to my dad as a child. I'm 6' tall, 290 lbs., and played 4 years of football in both offensive and defensive linemen positions, and my dad is still bigger and stronger than I am. He was both a great sense of security and a great source of deterrence. He has a heart twice the size of his barrel chest, but making him angry was one of the scariest things I could think of. I only saw it once, and I didn't know then if I could stop him. I doubt I could have without a large caliber firearm, and I was a martial arts student, too.

God has unfathomable power, and has shown the will to use it under the right circumstances. The warnings in the Bible are not empty threats. He's got the history to back up what He promises. That in itself should precipitate at least some fear.

But at the same time, He's also shown incredible patience and unbelievable acts of love and generosity, both on a large scale and on the individual level. Because of that, I do look at Him like I looked at my dad -- the perfect place to run; the infallible source of security, reassurance and love; and the last person in the world you want mad at you.

When I started looking at answering the question, "What does God want/expect from me?", I began to realize His standard was far beyond my ability to reach. By the combined standards of both the Old and New Testaments, I've broken all ten commandments. I know that no matter how much good I do, I will never be good enough to make it to heaven on my own merit, especially with the vivid awareness I have of the corruption that still resides in my mind. I fight it every single day. God cannot allow such pollution to pass through the gates of heaven. So if it comes to judgment, I'm a gonner.

But I don't have to fear that, either, thanks to the promise of the New Testament. All my eggs are in Jesus' basket. If He's not real, I'm toast. Literally. But I believe He is real, and that He is who He said He is. I've seen enough evidence to convince me.

Because of that knowledge and the confidence it bore in me, I no longer fear death. Of course, believing in something with all one's heart doesn't make it true. So we'll have to see someday if I'm right or not.


What are you afraid of?

Suffering. Pain. Hardship. The difference now is that I believe God will bring good from whatever bad thing happens to me, so I can take comfort in that. I've seen Him do it too many times already not to.


The disapproval (or approval) of your peers? Your parents? Your community? etc?

Already living that one. I am the only Christian in my family, and in many ways I feel alienated from them. None of them understand or support that which has become such an enormous part of my life -- my true life's passion. I live day-to-day, trusting that God will somehow reveal Himself to them, and that someday they will understand what I understand and embrace it as I have. But I also know I have no control over whether they do or not. As it was my decision, it must be theirs. That's very hard to cope with sometimes, but there's little I can do about it. So I go on trusting He will find a way.