(God-Wrestler)

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Fear and Trembling. I discussed my concearns of fearing God and what that really meant for us to fear God. I found an insight on this from Henri Nouwen, an author of many Christian works. Here is what he said;

Letting Go of Our Fear of God

We are afraid of emptiness. Spinoza speaks about our "horror vacui," our horrendous fear of vacancy. We like to occupy-fill up-every empty time and space. We want to be occupied. And if we are not occupied we easily become preoccupied; that is, we fill the empty spaces before we have even reached them. We fill them with our worries, saying, "But what if ..."

It is very hard to allow emptiness to exist in our lives. Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, a willingness to let something new and unexpected happen. It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance. God wants to dwell in our emptiness. But as long as we are afraid of God and God's actions in our lives, it is unlikely that we will offer our emptiness to God. Let's pray that we can let go of our fear of God and embrace God as the source of all love.

I thought that this was close to what I was trying to say in my last post. We need to learn to accept God as Love, to Love God back, and to share God's Love. If we spend time in fear of God how can we experience this great love that he promises us, and gives us so abundantly.

Now I also believe that sometimes the term fear is used to describe a deep respect for God, His authority, His power, and His control in our lives. However, I believe respect is apart of Love, so loving God and accepting God's love is our sign of respect.