Acts 9:31 (NIV) Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

Acts 10:35 (NIV) but [God] accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.

It starts with caring what God thinks rather than what people think. This type of fear is like social pressure. It is a matter of letting God’s opinions be a priority. We realize He is observing our lives and we are trying to impress Him rather than impressing the people of the world. I know we don’t think of our relationship with God in these terms most of the time. But, we do think these concepts during the week. We yield to social pressure rather than to God.

We try to impress people rather than God. Let’s reverse the process. Let’s fear Him rather than the opinions of people. As we have already seen, that fear won’t improve the deeds of our lives. It is just the beginning of wisdom.

1 John 4:18 (NIV) There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We aren’t afraid of losing our salvation. We aren’t inflicted with tormenting fear that causes us to cringe before God. This is a bad type of fear which has to do with being afraid that we are going to receive punishment from God. Let’s think of a time when we were tempted to lie because of the surrounding social pressure. It isn’t a tormenting fear. It is a feeling of discomfort that is pressuring us to make a certain decision. Our awe of God should pressure us in a greater way than all of these other influences.