The Joy of Fearing God

by Jerry Bridges

What Kind of Relationship Can You Have with Someone You Fear?

What Kind of Relationship Can You Have with Someone You Fear?

For most of us, fear is something we try to avoid. And fearing God hardly sounds like an occasion for joy. But Jerry Bridges shows how the fear of the Lord is actually the key that opens the door to a life of true knowledge, wisdom, blessing, and joy.

We all want a deeper, more intimate relationship with God–one that’s characterized by joy. But how does fearing God lead to joy? After all, aren’t we supposed to love Him and live in intimate relationship with Him? Jerry Bridges explores this paradox as he unpacks the biblical promise that God delights in those who fear Him. Join him as he unveils the awesome greatness of God–His incredible holiness, deep wisdom, and especially His inspiring love. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of who God is that will draw you into a truly biblical, and surprisingly delightful, fear of God–a fear that includes your own genuine, heartfelt delight in God.

You’ll make the startling discovery that the fear of the Lord, far from being something to avoid, is the key to joyful, fulfilling, and genuine intimacy with God. It can change your relationship with God and change your life! Discover the surprising Joy of Fearing God!Joy of Fearing God!

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Paperback, 352 pages

Published August 17th 2004 by WaterBrook (first published 1998)

tags: theology, spirituality, faith, christianity, christian non fiction, religion, psychology, counselling, nonfiction, christian living, discipleship, christian

Book Quotes

“Godly fear,” wrote John Bunyan, flows from a sense of the love and kindness of God to the soul. Where there is no sense of hope of the kindness and mercy of God by Jesus Christ, there can be none of this fear, but rather wrath and despair, which produces a fear that is … devilish; … but godly fear flows from a sense of hope of mercy from God by Jesus Christ.2”

― Jerry Bridges

“We cannot separate trust in God from the fear of God. We will trust Him only to the extent that we genuinely stand in awe of Him.”

― Jerry Bridges

“Music and liturgy can assist or express a worshiping heart, but they cannot make a non-worshiping heart into a worshiping one. The danger is that they can give a non-worshiping heart the sense of having worshiped. So the crucial factor in worship in the church is not the form of worship, but the state of the hearts of the saints. If our corporate worship isn’t the expression of our individual worshiping lives, it is unacceptable. If you think you can live anyway you want and then go to church on Sunday morning and turn on worship with the saints, you’re wrong.6”

― Jerry Bridges

“Regardless of how helpful an item or body of knowledge may be to society, if it does not have as its final purpose the glory of God, it remains defective.”

― Jerry Bridges

“The gospel invitation is wide-open to all: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take of the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17). And yet when we come, we discover that we were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). That is grace.”

― Jerry Bridges

“We’ve done nothing to earn His love and can do nothing to forfeit it. His love in Christ is eternal and unconditional. Nothing can separate us from His love, as the apostle Paul put it so eloquently. Do we really believe what Paul says to us here?”

― Jerry Bridges

“Had sin never entered the world it still would be fitting for us to fear God—to bow in reverential awe before Him. We would gladly join the seraphs in calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” But sin did enter the world—and because of His holiness, God now reveals Himself as the hater of sin and the just punisher of sinners. But He also reveals Himself in the person of His Son as a merciful and gracious Savior. Our awe of His holiness can be joined with amazement at His love. Reflect on these words from John”

― Jerry Bridges

“The prayer of a Christian is not an attempt to force God’s hand, but a humble acknowledgment of helplessness and dependence. When we are on our knees, we know that it is not we who control the world; it is not in our power, therefore, to supply our needs by our own independent efforts; every good thing that we desire for ourselves and for others must be sought from God, and will come, if it comes at all, as a gift from His hands.3”

― Jerry Bridges

“Reflect on these words from John Brown, a nineteenth-century Scottish pastor and theologian: Nothing is so well fitted to put the fear of God, which will preserve men from offending him, into the heart, as an enlightened view of the cross of Christ. There shine spotless holiness, inflexible justice, incomprehensible wisdom, omnipotent power, holy love. None of these excellencies darken or eclipse the other, but every one of them rather gives a lustre to the rest. They mingle their beams, and shine with united eternal splendour: the just Judge, the merciful Father, the wise Governor. Nowhere does justice appear so awful, mercy so amiable, or wisdom so profound.”

― Jerry Bridges

“O holy God! The sinless seraphs covered their faces in Your presence. How much more should we who are but sinful creatures bow in reverence before Your throne. You alone are holy. You alone are the transcendent, majestic God. You alone are morally pure. You are perfect light; in You there is no darkness at all. And yet, through Your Son You came to us as our Savior. You came not to pronounce woe but blessing to those who trust in Jesus. Fill our hearts with awe because of Your holiness, and with amazement because of Your love. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we praise You. Amen.”

― Jerry Bridges

“There are more than 150 references to the fear of God in the Bible.6 While the majority of these occur in the Old Testament, there are a sufficient number in the New Testament to convince us that fearing God is indeed an attitude of heart we should cultivate today.”

― Jerry Bridges

“We were not drowning people needing a life ring—we were dead people in need of life. Further, we were slaves to the world, to the devil, and to our own sinful natures. And as we’ve already seen, we were by nature objects of God’s holy wrath. Dead, slaves, objects of wrath—what a desperate condition!”

― Jerry Bridges

Jerry Bridges

Jerry Bridges is an evangelical Christian author, speaker and staff member of The Navigators. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold more than one million copies. His devotional Holiness Day By Day garnered the 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award for the inspiration and gift category, and The Discipline Of Grace received a similar award in 1995 for the Christian living category.

Bridges earned his undergraduate degree in engineering at the University of Oklahoma before serving as an officer in the United States Navy during the Korean War.

He joined Christian discipleship organization The Navigators in 1955, where he served as administrative assistant to the Europe Director, office manager for the headquarters office, Secretary-Treasurer of the organization, and as Vice President for Corporate Affairs before moving to a staff development position with the Collegiate Mission.
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