Should we live in fear that a loving God is out to get us?
There are some people who teach that a lack of fear of God in believers
is the reason that there is no move of God among believers and the
reason that there is no fear of God in unbelievers.
The Bible states that "God is LOVE", is it godly for God's creation to live in fear of Him?
In actual fact, knowing that God is love we know the love of God results in fearlessness, for the scripture says:
We ourselves are eye-witnesses able and willing to testify to the fact that the Father did send the Son to save the world. Everyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God lives in him, and he lives in God. So we have come to know and trust the love God has for us. God is love, and the man whose life is lived in love does, in fact, live in God, and God does, in fact, live in him. So our love for him grows more and more, filling us with complete confidence for the day when he shall judge all men—for we realize that our life in this world is actually his life lived in us. Love contains no fear—indeed fully-developed love expels every particle of fear, for fear always contains some of the torture of feeling guilty. This means that the man who lives in fear has not yet had his love perfected. (1 John 4: 14-18 Phillips NT.
Just because religious people fear God, and want you to fear God because of their fear of God and keep harping that God is going to punish you doesn’t mean it’s true. What it shows is that their ignorance of the love of God prevents them from experiencing His love or understanding God's love nature. A reason many Christians perceive God as angry, hateful, a killer and demanding is because they do not understand man’s redemption from God’s perspective.God made man in His image, after His likeness (Gen. 1:26). God made man in his image to be His love child. That’s why Jesus repeatedly refers to God as “your Father.”
Many Christians don’t feel worthy to come to God when they screw up, because they have been taught that their sin disqualifies them. That kind of thinking is not God pleasing. God isn't mad at people or punish people who aren't perfect keepers of the law or religious rules or slip up while living the grace life. He desires us to come to Him with assurance of His acceptance...not because we are good but because He is good.
This is opposite to what religion teaches about the parable, mistakenly referred to as the Prodigal Son. When most of us read the account, we relate with the wayward son in the hog-pen. We think our behavior has made us unworthy to be in the presence of our Father, so maybe if we beg His forgiveness and confess our sins, God will let us live in His kingdom as a "lowly servant". However, God does not have "lowly servants". Jesus was not telling this parable to show us man’s deviate nature; no, no, no it was to confirm and show God’s nature of love and kindness.
Luke 15:20 explains how God feels about us when we fail and return to Him. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
The son confessed his unworthiness to the father, but the father is blind and deaf regarding the wrong doing. There was no putting his son on on a redeeming mission or probation or making him work his way back into the father’s good graces. The father wasn’t interested in punitive action toward his son; he was overjoyed about getting back what brought him pleasure.
The son was immediately restored to his family status. The son’s disloyalty and rebellion was not a part of the picture it was not remembered or brought up. It didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered to the father was expressed in Luke 15:24: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
That’s the attitude of a loving father. That’s the true nature of God.
Father God takes pleasure in you!
The Bible states that "God is LOVE", is it godly for God's creation to live in fear of Him?
In actual fact, knowing that God is love we know the love of God results in fearlessness, for the scripture says:
We ourselves are eye-witnesses able and willing to testify to the fact that the Father did send the Son to save the world. Everyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God lives in him, and he lives in God. So we have come to know and trust the love God has for us. God is love, and the man whose life is lived in love does, in fact, live in God, and God does, in fact, live in him. So our love for him grows more and more, filling us with complete confidence for the day when he shall judge all men—for we realize that our life in this world is actually his life lived in us. Love contains no fear—indeed fully-developed love expels every particle of fear, for fear always contains some of the torture of feeling guilty. This means that the man who lives in fear has not yet had his love perfected. (1 John 4: 14-18 Phillips NT.
Just because religious people fear God, and want you to fear God because of their fear of God and keep harping that God is going to punish you doesn’t mean it’s true. What it shows is that their ignorance of the love of God prevents them from experiencing His love or understanding God's love nature. A reason many Christians perceive God as angry, hateful, a killer and demanding is because they do not understand man’s redemption from God’s perspective.God made man in His image, after His likeness (Gen. 1:26). God made man in his image to be His love child. That’s why Jesus repeatedly refers to God as “your Father.”
Many Christians don’t feel worthy to come to God when they screw up, because they have been taught that their sin disqualifies them. That kind of thinking is not God pleasing. God isn't mad at people or punish people who aren't perfect keepers of the law or religious rules or slip up while living the grace life. He desires us to come to Him with assurance of His acceptance...not because we are good but because He is good.
This is opposite to what religion teaches about the parable, mistakenly referred to as the Prodigal Son. When most of us read the account, we relate with the wayward son in the hog-pen. We think our behavior has made us unworthy to be in the presence of our Father, so maybe if we beg His forgiveness and confess our sins, God will let us live in His kingdom as a "lowly servant". However, God does not have "lowly servants". Jesus was not telling this parable to show us man’s deviate nature; no, no, no it was to confirm and show God’s nature of love and kindness.
Luke 15:20 explains how God feels about us when we fail and return to Him. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
The son confessed his unworthiness to the father, but the father is blind and deaf regarding the wrong doing. There was no putting his son on on a redeeming mission or probation or making him work his way back into the father’s good graces. The father wasn’t interested in punitive action toward his son; he was overjoyed about getting back what brought him pleasure.
The son was immediately restored to his family status. The son’s disloyalty and rebellion was not a part of the picture it was not remembered or brought up. It didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered to the father was expressed in Luke 15:24: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
That’s the attitude of a loving father. That’s the true nature of God.
Father God takes pleasure in you!
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