What Does it Mean to Fear God?

      What does it mean to fear God? In Ecclesiastes King Solomon tells us in 12:13 "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Psalm 33:8 "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!" In contrast the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. Psalm 118:6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
     We see we are told to fear but yet not to fear. But if we look closer we can see that there are different kinds of fear. In Ec 12:13 and Ps 33:8 were talking about fear as giving respect or reverence to God. By fearing God you are showing respect by obeying and submitting to his word. Proverbs 8:13 "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate." So fearing God you hate what God hates not because you are terrified of him, because you respect and love him. By fearing him you hate what God hates and love what God loves.
      To make it even more clear as to what the fear of God is. In Isaiah 64:8 it says, "But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand." We see God is referred to as our Father thus making us his children. We all had a mother and a father at one point in our life. Did we not respect them and obey them? Did we not have also a kind of fear towards them especially when we were going to be punish? There was also a fear that we would disappoint them in someway. Even if we were punish and we feared them, we still loved and respected them. We wanted to be just like them. That is exactly the way God wants us to look towards him to love him and also to fear(respect) him. Deuteronomy 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul."
     Now lets take a look at the kind of fear that was mention in 1 John 4:18 and Psalms 118:6. This fear refers to something that may cause you to be afraid or to have pain or to feel threaten. God is not a tyrant. He does not punish us because he enjoys it. Ezekiel 18:31,32 "Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live." God sometimes has no choice but to punish the unrepentant soul. Hebrew 10:31 says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." James 2:19 "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe---and shudder!"
     The ones that love God, to fear God means to respect and to revere. But to the ones that do not know or are against God, to fear God means to be afraid or to feel threaten. To me I look at God like my heavenly Father, I love and respect him but I do acknowledge his awesome power. I know I am like an ant to a giant but that giant loves me and he will not step on me. God is my loving Father and my friend, whom I also fear and love.                                                                                    (ESV)