What do you get when you fear God?

What are the benefits of fearing the Lord?  Well, the Bible is full of them but I'd simply like to highlight four.  First though, we need a good definition of what it means to fear God. Scripture is full of examples of how fearing God is a positive rather than a negative thing.  It's not that kind of dreadful anxiety in which someone is frightened by the clear and present danger that is represented by another person.  Instead, it's more akin to that of a child who has a tremendous love and respect for his Father and who clearly wants to please them.  This child has a fear or an anxiety of offended the one he loves and respects not because he's afraid of torture of punishment but because he's afraid of displeasing the one who is, in that child's world, the source of all love and security.

So, when we, as believers AND children of our Almighty Father, have a healthy, reverent respect for the One who proved his love by giving us HIS son as payment for our sins, our lives, then, operate with a kind of comfort knowing that, no matter what happens or what we do, we'll be loved unconditionally and forgiven innumerably.

Psalm 25 provides two other benefits of fearing the Lord.  Verse 12 says "Who is the man who fears the Lord?  Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose."  Verse 14 says "The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant."

Fear God.  If you do get love, forgiveness, insight, and friendship from God himself.  And that's only the beginning...