Fear Your Father?

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IF GOD IS MY FATHER, WHY AM I SUPPOSED TO FEAR HIM?

For a long time I misunderstood the idea of "fear God". I thought of it like being told to relate to an abusive father — someone whose power you had to manage and whose disappointment was always around the corner.  I knew that this wasn't right. But the command is everywhere — the Old Testament and the New Testament – repeated without apology. So I had to ask the honest question: am I missing something? Am I supposed to fear my Father? – So let’s talk about this

"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." — Psalm 103:13–14

This psalm is David's great hymn of praise to God's love. By the time we reach verse 13, David has already mentioned God's forgiveness and his healing and his redemption. And now he reaches for the deepest image he knows to describe how God's compassion actually works — a father with his children. And here’s what’s important to know: God’s compassion flows toward those who fear him.

The Old Testament word most often translated "fear" when talking about God does include the idea of being startled or afraid — but it also carries the meaning of deep respect, reverence, and a SERIOUS REGARD. The feeling you have when you are in the presence of someone or something so much greater than you are that you reorganize how you think about yourself. It’s seeing God in a way that changes things.

Think of it like this. Imagine standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon for the first time. Something happens in you that is not exactly fear — but it is not casual either. You become still. You become aware of how small you are. You stop thinking about your grocery list and just focused on this magnificent and mind-blowing reality.

Here is what is actually at stake for you: if the fear of God is a barrier between you two, you will spend your Christian life in an arm’s length relationship. But if the fear of God is the door to his compassion — then understanding it correctly is one of the most important things you can do.

Proverbs 9:10 says the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Not the middle. Not the advanced stage. The beginning — the starting point of a life that is rightly ordered.

The fear of God is what happens when you take God seriously enough that it reorganizes everything else – your priorities and choices. The things you run toward and the things you run from. All of it gets reoriented around who God actually is.

John Owen, the great Puritan theologian, put it this way:

"The fear of God is not a slavish dread but a filial reverence — the natural response of a child who knows both the greatness and the goodness of his Father." - John Owen

Owen is saying the fear God is asking for is not the fear of a prisoner before a judge. It is the reverence of a child who loves his father enough to take him seriously. And here is the part we cannot afford to lose: this God is holy. He is not manageable. The prophet Isaiah saw him and fell on his face. The Apostle John saw the risen Christ and dropped like a dead man. The fear of God retains a real weight — not because he is cruel, but because he is awesome. The difference between us and him never goes away, even in the closest intimacy. What changes in Christ is not the weight. What changes is what the weight means. Hebrews 4:15 tells us we have a high priest — Jesus himself — who knows our weaknesses from the inside, who was tempted in every way we are, and who meets us not with contempt but with mercy. The Father who asks you to fear him sent his Son to become dust with you.

Fearing God is not one more demand on your already exhausted spiritual life. It is an invitation to stop pretending — to come as you are, dust and all, to a Father who already knows you completely and whose compassion is already on the way.

WHAT THE TEXT SAYS HERE IS… God's compassion moves toward those who are captured by him — not because they have earned God’s favor by their reverence, but because the fear itself is the posture of a child who has stopped pretending and started trusting. He knows we are dust. He has never expected otherwise.

AND THIS MEANS… The fear of God is an invitation, not a threat. It calls you to reverent submission — to stop negotiating with God's purposes and start resting in them. This is possible not because you have worked up enough reverence but because Jesus, who knew our frame completely, bore our dust all the way to the cross and rose from it. The compassion of the Father reaches you through the Son. You do not have to be stronger than you are to receive it.

Father, you are holy and great and awesome — and your greatness is not a threat to us but a refuge. We confess we have treated your fear as a barrier rather than a door — and often stayed on the wrong side. Thank you for sending Jesus, who became dust for us and rose so we could come near. Teach us what it means to fear you rightly — with the reverence of trusting children. In Jesus' name we pray —

Remember: He knows your dust — every weakness, every failure, every fragile place — and this means his compassion is already moving toward you, not waiting for you to get stronger first.