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• Illustration: Miller recounts going to the CN Tower in Toronto and feeling the fear of looking 1,815 down through a glass floor. He then tells of going to the Grand Canyon and feeling the fear of looking 6,000 feet down to the bottom, where over 50 people have fallen to their deaths.

• When the Bible tells us to fear God—as it does multiple times—does it mean the kind of fear I had at the CN Tower, or does it mean the kind of fear I had at the Grand Canyon?
• For most of my Christian life, people have told me it's like the CN Tower: a thrill of reverence, but there's no reason to be afraid.
• But in the first few pages of the Bible, Adam says to God, "I heard the sound of you in the garden and I hid because I was afraid."
• Moses sees this bush that's on fire, and he hears God's voice speaking to him from out of the bush. The Bible says: Moses fell on his face and hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
• The people gather at Mount Sinai, God comes down, the mountain is covered in smoke, and the ground is rumbling underneath their feet. They say: Don't let God keep talking to us, or we're going to die!
• Job flat out says, "I am terrified at God's presence. I am in dread of him."
• Isaiah is praying in the temple, and God appears in his glory. Isaiah says, "I'm as good as dead! Every word I've ever spoken is tainted—blasphemous even!"
• You may be thinking, Well, some people actually did feel fear, but God is good and would not want us to feel that way.
• But Isaiah prophesied: "The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy. He is the one you are to fear. He is the one you are to dread."
• Or maybe you're thinking, That is true, but that is the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus is revealed to us as full of grace.
• Jesus said: Dear friends, don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body. But fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell.

• When the Bible talks about fearing God, it's not just talking about a sense of awe. It is talking about fear.
  -Illustration: A.W. Tozer said: In the old days, people of faith were said to walk in the fear of God and to serve the Lord with fear. Wherever God appeared to people in Bible times, the results were an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt. The self-assurance of modern Christians, the shocking disrespect shown for the Person of God are evidence of deep blindness of heart.
• When the Bible talks about the fear of God, it's talking about the fear I felt at the Grand Canyon, in which there is realistic danger. And yet it is such a beauty, such an awesome grandeur, that you are drawn to it.
• As Aaron Damiani says, "The fear of God is not a fear that drives you away; it's a fear that beckons you."
• We don't like the fact that God is scary, but the Bible pictures Jesus as both lion and lamb.

• Why does the Bible tell us to fear God?
• The answer to that is captured in Exodus 20: "The fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."
  -Illustration: Miller gives several examples of how we’ll break the rules if we can do it without penalty.
  -Illustration: My dad used to say, "If one of you kids gets picked up for shoplifting, you can just save that one free phone call from the police, because I'm not coming to get you out." So I didn't shoplift, because I knew I would have to deal with my dad.
• The fear of God is a healthy, restraining fear and force in your life.
• Psalm 103:17–18 says: "The merciful goodness of the Lord endures forever on those who fear him … on those who keep his covenant and remember his commandments and do them."
• People who fear God do what he says.
• The person who does not fear God thinks, I know this isn't really right, but I know God will forgive me. The moment you use God’s grace to excuse your sin, you are no longer relating to the real God.

• We have to ask a question: If God is so "fear-inspiring," why would I ever want to draw near to him?
• The psalm says: "He forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities. He redeems your life from the grave and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness. He satisfies you with good things, and your youth is renewed like an eagle's."
• This is not what you would expect from a God who inspires fear and who could strike you dead and has done it to some people.
• But when you come to him humbly, you find he showers you with benefits and forgives all your sins.
  -Illustration: If you're ever having trouble with humility, imagine you're in the United Center and in the center of the arena is a rolling film clip of what you’ve thought and done in the past week. God sees that, and yet he forgives all your sins.
  -Illustration: A Christian in the 600s, Marterius, said: "Let us ponder how we who are mortal beings, continually bespotted with the mud of sins, have been held worthy to stand before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…"
• No wonder the psalmist says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul!"
• Psalm 103:8–12: "The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness…As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us."
• This psalm keeps repeating the word mercy. "The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. He crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness."
• Who is this mercy for? "His mercy is great upon those who fear him."
• If you fear God, there's a "waterfall of mercy" pouring down from God over you.
• "God forgives all my sins and he heals all my infirmities." It's talking about those twisted places in your life that you don't like and you wish weren't there, but they keep you from your full potential in God.
• When you realize God heals that junk in your soul, you have to rise up and go, "Bless the Lord, O my soul."
• "Bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits." Suddenly, you realize all those good things in your life are from God.
• On a day that we do not know the date of and when we least expect it, Jesus Christ will return in triumph. Every knee will bow to him in awe and reverence and—yes—fear. And your heart will lift up and you will say, "Bless the Lord, O my soul!"