“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…” (Proverbs 9:10)
God’s love is amazing — and it’s essential that we know how much He loves us. But we also desperately need the fear of God. Don’t you think Adam and Eve knew God loved them? They walked with Him, intimately interacted with Him, and lived in a glorious paradise He made for them. But that didn’t stop them from choosing another way when it was presented to them by the enemy. And that’s because they did not have the fear of God. If they had, I believe things would have turned out differently.
The fear of the Lord is the unshakable knowledge that outside of God’s will, there is nothing but death, darkness and despair. Even Jesus had the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:3). And if He “delighted” in it, perhaps we should too.