Today in Sunday School we discussed fear, and how it can hinder us from making good choices and doing what God wants us to do. Someone brought up that we fear God. I had this thought: there is a difference between the fear of God and other kinds of fear. When we talk about fearing God, we usually use the word fear to refer to awe or reverence. If we are in Christ, we have no reason to be afraid of God the way we fear terrorism, or the deaths of loved ones. As Isaiah 8:13 says, "Do not fear anything except the Lord Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear (respect, revere) Him, you need fear nothing else." Sometimes, however, it is easier to fear the things you can see, rather than give proper fear to the Lord God. Being in the Word and keeping close to God can help us not to fear man. The more we focus on God, the more real He becomes to us and the more we realize how little the things of this earth matter in the long run. The joy for me, today, is the joy we have through our Lord, and the hope we have that He'll be coming back for us soon. There's a joy in knowing that the sorrow and heartbreak and suffering we go through have a purpose behind them, and that they won't last forever. If we didn't experience suffering, our relationship with God would not be as rich, because we wouldn't rely on God and we wouldn't see the demonstration of His power. I'm not saying that the more we suffer, the better, but I am saying that the suffering we go through God allows for a reason. All praise be to Him.