The Fear of God

Leaving the crowd, they [the disciples] took Him [Jesus] along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" (Mark 4:36-41 NASB)

It is often so easy for us to look at the discples and giggle at their unbelief. We think, "Man, these guys live with Jesus, they see Him do miracles all the time, how could they be so unbelieving?" Remember, this is chapter 4 of Mark, so not much has happened yet in the book. No feeding of five thousand (ch. 6), no raising of dead babies (ch. 5), nothing huge. Sure, Jesus had healed some people and had defeated some demons.... but nothing on the size or scale of calming one of those nasty Sea of Galilee storms.

The disciples not only were suffering from a lack of faith... but the Bible says that they were afraid! They were scared of Jesus.
When was the last time you were actually scared because of God's power?
Check these passages: Matt 10:28; Ecc 12:13; 2 Cor 7:1; Prov 1:7. The Fear of God is a natural thing for believers. God is eternal! God is omnipotent! God is sovereign!

Why should we fear God?
God is Holy, set apart, and perfect.
God deserves our respect. Yet we often do not give it.
We do not believe God's word to be true, and we do not fear offending God.

Look at the Old Testament. The people of Israel consistently wavered from the Godly path. God just as consistently had to punish them. This was not some wrist slap. This was wholesale slaughter on nearly genocidal proportions.
We, as believers, often want to play the whore with our God. We sign our lives over to Him, then go play around with sin. We give God the proverbial spiritual "finger". And we never fear what God may do.
Gal. 6:7 says "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."
When we look at farming, we know that laying corn seeds will produce corn plants. Same with apples, tobacco, and cotton. It is the same with sin and righteousness. If we keep planting evil deeds and slapping God in the face, He will not allow Himself to be mocked.

Fear God. Use this as a reason to keep yourself pure. Use this as a reason to love God, because He will never change, and you know you can count on Him. In a world of change where from one day to the next you never know who to trust, you know God will be there.
Merry Christmas