“In the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children shall always have a place of refuge. Reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.
Anyone that spends much time in prayer with God will come to know the heart of God like Jesus did. Knowing the heart of God is to know the will of God, and to know the will of God, is to tremble before Him with an awesome sense of accountability – as reflected in godly fear, the reverent submission that Jesus came to the Father with in the days of His flesh (Heb. 5:7-8.). This fear, this sense of accountability is one of the great missing elements in the prayers of many people today and typically it is a result of the loss of intimacy with God in prayer.
This awesome sense of accountability is the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Proverbs 9:10). According to Proverbs 8:13 & 3:7, to fear the Lord is to hate evil and to depart from evil. (Proverbs 14:26-27 “In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, for the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, and to those who fear Him, there is no want (Ps. 34:9).”
David reminds us that for the wicked person “there is no fear of God before his eye. For he flatters himself in his own eyes (Ps. 36:1-2).” Tragically this same attitude is common among Christians in their prayer lives. If you use your prayer time to instruct God on what you think you need and what you want, instead of coming before the Lord in prayer with an awesome sense of accountability to obey all that He instructs during your prayer time, then there is no fear of the One to whom you are praying.
In our day, the word fear has become restricted to negative emotions and actions. The idea of having fear toward a loving God is not acceptable to many people these days. Jesus had no problem at all of connecting a proper fear of God with knowing God’s love. For us, such a comprehensive understanding can come only through intimate fellowship with the Father through prayer and Bible Study. As we seek the heart of God through the Scriptures, prayer provides an intimate fellowship with the Author of the Scripture to reinforce His love toward us as expressed in the Bible. This deep awareness of accountability to God for external things will then characterize your prayer life.
As you spend time in prayer, your knowledge of God will continue to grow. Not only will you come to understand the will of God expressed in your life, but you will come to understand the character of God, His holiness, His love, His heart, His ways, and His words. As you are exposed to the things of God in prayer, it will also create within you a holy fear of God.