“Then all the people of the surrounding country…asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned” (Luke 8:37, ESV).

I call this “The Wrong Kind of Fear.” This is from the story where Jesus casts the legion of demons out and they ask to go into the pigs, and all the pigs kill themselves. The people come and see what has happened, and they see the man freed and sitting there in his right mind. They see the miracle, but they also know what happened to the pigs.

They don’t understand what just happened. It’s too much to handle. They want Jesus to get away from them. They are seized with fear and beg Him to go. They have the wrong kind of fear of the Lord. The wrong kind of fear makes us hide from Him. The right kind draws us to Him. The right kind makes us fall to our knees to say have mercy on me, a sinner, and we receive from Him love and forgiveness. The wrong kind makes us not want to approach Him—makes us hide our sin, makes us not trust His plans and decisions concerning us. He might choose prison and torture! He might take my kids! Or maybe it’s, He might make me give up…

It keeps us from surrendering our lives to Him. If you can’t abandon your life to God’s plan for you, then you don’t have the right kind of fear of the Lord. You need to get to know Him. You need to know your good Father who is love, whose mercy endures forever! His love for you is steadfast. It’s not going to change. He has plans for you, and they are good; “plans to prosper you and not to harm you” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV). His thoughts toward you are peace.

Let the awesomeness of God not turn you away, but drive you to take shelter under His wings, knowing His greatness and power and authority and holiness and how He welcomes you there by His side!