The following is a transcript of the video above, edited for readability.
It says in Proverbs, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Now, we have to understand the right kind of fear. If fearing God means that I'm scared that God is always going to come down and crush me because I'm not making him happy, that's not the proper fear. That's religion. That's, "I have to work really hard to make God happy with me." But the proper kind of fear is a reverence and an awe of who God is.
Even though Jesus is our friend, he's also the god of the universe, he's the savior of the world, he's the king of all the earth, and it's bowing down in reverence and fear. And by the way, that kind of fear and that kind of humility fosters such a wonderful, sweet relationship and a dependence on him. And it's also very freeing, because when we acknowledge God as sovereign and we fear him that way, then it frees us from having to control our lives, from having to dictate all the results and from having to sort of manipulate everything in order to produce results. So that is a healthy, reverent respect and fear for God.
(Article first published March 5, 2013)
For more information about Dan Darling, visit: www.danieldarling.com
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