Recently there was a tragic shooting at the University of Arizona. It impacted several close to me, including my mom, who knew the man killed in the tragedy. Hurricanes, opioids, cancer, car wrecks, and even the threat of war lurk and stir up anxiety and fear. Who wants more fear in their life?

A 2021 study found that Americans most want to avoid fear in their lives and most desire security and safety. On the flip side, Halloween is right around the corner: a holiday where Americans trivialize fear. Perhaps we think that we can lessen our anxieties if we make light of them.

Michael Reeves suggests that one type of fear can oust every other fear: the fear of God. To fear God is to experience true peace.

Michael Reeves is one of my favorite living Christian authors. He tackles profound theological topics with clarity and depth. In Rejoice and Tremble, Reeves argues for us to recover fear as a foundational posture in our relationship with God.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," Proverbs 9:10 reads. "The fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure," Isaiah tells us.

Meanwhile, we live in a culture that is deathly afraid of fear. We do everything to ensure our safety and our family's safety. This idol of security loosens the power of fear in our spiritual lives. "When your culture is hedonistic, your religion therapeutic, and your goal a feeling of personal well-being, fear will be the ever-present headache," Reeves says.

Reeves believes our anxiety stems from our moral confusion (he points to various sociologists on this front). "Anxiety grows best in the soil of unbelief. It withers in contact with faith. And faith is fertilized by the fear of God."

Reeves explains that there is a sinful (natural) fear and a fear that springs forth from love. Reeves points out multiple times in the Old Testament where love and fear are equated. There is a fear of God that speaks of "the sheer intensity of the saints' happiness in God." To fear God is to trust him. To fear God is to behold him. To fear God is to know him. "He is a majestic, consuming fire whose splendor causes dread in sinners and delight in saints."

Reeves invites us to pull back and consider our fears. "What do my fears say about me and my priorities, about what I treasure? What do they say about where I am looking for security." Amazingly, Reeves argues, when our fear is proper (that is, the fear of God), it makes us happy, not anxious. "As the fear of the Lord grows, it outgrows, eclipses, consumes, and destroys all rival fears." Modern culture believes that fear diminishes as our self-esteem increases. On the contrary, the more we think our happiness depends on our control, the more our fear overwhelms us. Freedom is knowing that our compassionate and sovereign God is in control.

Reeves says that our fears meet their terminus in eternity. "That day will usher in a new age in which both the sinful fears of unbelievers and the right fear of believers will crescendo. Both sorts of fear will climax and become eternal states--an ecstasy of terror on the one hand, and delight, on the other." Oh, to grow in holy fear and experience the fullness of God's presence!

I wholeheartedly endorse Reeves's Rejoice and Tremble. It will encourage and strengthen you and invite you into a perfect and holy fear that casts out all other fear.

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash