II Chronicles 19:7 Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribes.

The fear of the Lord is beyond anyone’s ability to truly understand. But to borrow from every sermon I’ve heard, every article and book I’ve read, and current Chat GPT, the fear of the Lord is about reverential awe accompanied by a sense of God’s power and holiness. It’s meant to draw us to Him—and not drive us away—encouraging humility and a desire to get into and stay in His presence.

Proverbs 9:10 tells us that it is the beginning of wisdom, and that was particularly important for the group of Old Testament judges to whom this verse in II Chronicles was delivered. It is applicable to all believers, of course, and is particularly apt for this devotional. The “let” part is especially important here, as it is easy to respond to God’s power and holiness by pulling back and setting up barriers. Things are easy when He is clearly showing favor to us and setting His love upon us; we want to live in that as much as Peter wanted to set up three booths at the transfiguration and extend the experience. Many of us are also open to His (occasional) correction and conviction. But even when we have been open to the His fear coming upon us in conviction and discipline, we often experience it as a quick hit or something related to a particular work the Lord is doing in our lives.

The scripture above has two main thoughts. One is that the fear of the Lord can “be upon us,” that is, can abide with us and dwell with us, as opposed to just “touching down” on us for a moment. The other thought is that, again, this is something that we can “let” or “not let” happen. It’s easy to push the fear of the Lord away, as many times we associate it with discomfort, something some of us would prefer to have only in spiritual fits and starts.

So it’s up to us. Are we going to “let” the fear of the Lord be upon us, leading us to live in justice and righteousness? Or will we accept it only here and there, n times of repentance or exulting times of worship?

A taste of His fear can be overwhelming. After all, God is holy and righteous. He hates sin and judges it, even in our lives. This awareness of who He is can be awe-inspiring, and we can experience that in a couple of ways. If we are being convicted of sin, we can associate the fear of the Lord with pain or disquiet. In that case, we tend to want to keep that discomfort to a minimum. But even when his power, awesomeness, and holy authority come to us in times of strong spiritual connection with the Holy Spirit, we can relegate that to “special moments” and “transcendent experiences” meant to be enjoyed momentarily and remembered fondly later. Abiding in the fear of Lord may well grant us those experiences from time to time. But what God and our soul really want is to have that fear resting upon us at all times. It’s a reality that can be ours at all times, if we let it.