"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
We know that we exist, we know our thoughts, we know who our family members are; we think we know who are friends are. We think we know where we are now, and where we are going in life.
All of the above can change in an instant! We could suffer a mental breakdown and lose sight of who we are. We could discover that our parents are not our biological parents. Our friends could betray us and "stab us in the back." We could lose all that we planned for ourselves in a single mishap or accident. Our dreams could come crashing down in a natural or man-made disaster. We could become maimed by disease. Everything we know could disappear overnight in a number of different ways, including death. There is no guarantee of anything temporal.
There is one thing that never changes: The eternal God. We need to fear God because He is God.
When we know God, we fear Him. In His Holy Word, the Bible, we learn of God's deep love for us, and also of His intense hatred of sin. We learn that God keeps His promises. He promises to save His people from their sin through the blood of His son Jesus Christ (trust Him). God promises to eternally punish those who reject His son Jesus Christ, and eternally reward those who accept Him (believe Him). Believers are motivated by love and fear of God, not on account of what they have to fear themselves, but on account of what unbelievers are unknowingly facing. Christians are afraid for the unbeliever and what they will suffer when they die without knowing Jesus Christ. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Please tell others about Jesus. Pray that the lost will sense the urgency of the gospel and fear God. The gospel is "good news" because of the "bad news." The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowing God. When we know God, we will know Him forever. The Lord Jesus Christ reassures Christians that we do not need to be afraid of His wrath. "There is no fear in love; for perfect love casts out fear."
When we see that the road's bridge is out, it is our moral responsibility to warn others who are walking and driving straight toward it, especially in this midnight hour!
~dkg