How fear helps us fight sin

Tom Harper July 11, 2023

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"God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." (Ex 20:20) Godly #leadership is tested.

There are many kinds of fear associated with sin. Here are a few:

● Fear of being found out
● Fear of punishment
● Fear of hurting others
● Fear of damaging your fellowship with God
● Fear of bringing disrepute to God's name

In his mercy, God allows these fears into our hearts to help us repent from sin and turn from it. If we do, he is glorified, our relationship with him is restored, and the enemy loses his foothold in our lives.

The Lord desires our fear because he loves us and doesn't want us to sin. The natural consequences of sin aren't always enough to deter us or to drive us to seek forgiveness.

Think about someone you love dearly. Are you afraid of hurting them? Why? If you knew they would forgive you eventually and love you no matter what, why does it still bother you to hurt them?

We're afraid of hurting those we love because it will cause them pain. They'll be sad. They may be confused about who we really are, that maybe they made a mistake when they let us into their heart in an intimate way.

Would you like to decrease your sinning? "Through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil" (Prov. 16:6).

Excerpted from Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership, by Tom Harper (DeepWater Books, 2019). Also available in Spanish and Amharic.

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Tom Harper is publisher of BiblicalLeadership.com and executive chairman of Networld Media Group, a business-to-business publisher and event producer. He has written five books, including Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership (DeepWater Books, 2019) as well as the Christian business fable Through Colored Glasses and its sequel Inner Threat (DeepWater, 2022). Learn More »

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