Question
I keep hearing about the concept of ‘fearing God’ and really wanted to study it myself. Do you have any book recommendations or passages that would get me started?
Answer
Dear Friend – I sure do! And it’s fantastic that you are wanting to study this incredibly important topic. The Bible says that ‘The Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom.”
I would recommend the following areas to start:
1.) Book recommendations:
- First of all the Fear of God for me has been a natural study of the Bible and of books that aren’t specifically only about that subject but give a higher view of God. I am really, really thankful for A.W. Tozer’s “The Attributes of God”, “Knowledge of the Holy” and “The Pursuit of God”. Maybe you want to start there. Or.
- I did some research on Amazon and found some books that piqued my interest:
- The Fear of God, by John Bunyan (The Pilgrim’s Progress author). It looks old and out of touch but scanning through it, it looks powerful (he lived in the mid to late 1600’s).
- Where is the Fear of God, by Charles von Hammerstein – looks the most modern and solid one
- Fear the Lord, by John Bevere (or Embrace the Fear of God), it looks a bit more charismatic, but he’s known as a good writer.
2.) You are going to want to read the Old Testament to get a better idea of the Fear of God.
- I would recommend starting in Proverbs to understand the power of having a healthy fear of God (chps 1, 8-10, 14-16; 19, 22)
- I would recommend then reading Deut 6 (mostly verse 13) and 31 (mostly verses 12-13).
- Maybe read 2 Cor 5:11 & Rev 14:7 periodically along the way.
- But I would read more the Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah. I know they are weird and a little thick, but they give a bigger view of God. We tend to only allow God to be contained in the written demonstration of the humanity of Jesus these days and it’s not healthy. God is so much bigger than the view He gave us on earth.
That will get you started.
