In Episode 82 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, host Greg Ryan explores the concepts of doubt, fear, and the biblical "fear of the Lord." He begins by defining fear as "false evidence appearing real," citing Zig Ziglar and Webster’s dictionary, and notes that the dictionary’s inclusion of "reverence" hints at a healthier, respectful form of fear. Greg contrasts this reverent fear with ordinary anxiety, using the biblical premise that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10) and drawing heavily from Proverbs (e.g., 1:7, 8:13, 9:10, 10:26, 14:26‑27, 15:16, 15:33, 16:6, 19:23, 22:4, 23:17‑18). He illustrates reverent fear through a personal observation of Catholic Eucharistic reverence, emphasizing that respect for divine authority need not be terrifying but rather awe‑inspiring. Throughout, Greg weaves themes of humility, obedience, and the importance of grounding one’s life in Scripture, linking humility and fear of the Lord to riches, honor, and life. The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer asking listeners to receive the lesson, cultivate humility, and experience the blessings associated with the fear of the Lord.
Welcome to episode 82, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Episode 82. If you are here for the first time, welcome aboard. If you are a frequent flyer, welcome back, you fanatic. Well, I am going to start a new kind of a little series, little mini series if you will, on just some questions that I found out there on the interwebs. And one of them is, what is doubt? A difference between doubt and fear? And I'm thinking, well, I, since I've got No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, who better to answer that question than me? So here's my semi-educated definition of fear. I love what I believe Zig Ziglar— I'm going to give him the credit for it— he said that fear is false evidence appearing real. And I think that's a pretty good definition. We talked on a previous episode about how, where fear comes from, and there's different types of fear. I want to go to the Webster Dictionary real quick. I found this in my library. It is old. It's older than I am. This dictionary was born in 1960. I just like it. The pages are all yellow and old. I just love this thing. So it's got to be, it's got to be true if it's that old, right? Well, fear by Webster's Dictionary is apprehension of evil or danger, dread, anxiety, solicitude— don't even know what that word means, I had to look that up, so I'm going to leave it in there— but solicitude, reverence, and to regard with apprehension. And there was one word in there that didn't really fit well, didn't play well with the others, and that was reverence. And as you go back in the fear of the Lord, you know, there is a fear that the Bible talks about where the beginning of all wisdom is found in Psalm 111:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments. His praise endures forever. There are many places in the Bible where it talks about the fear of the Lord, and most of them, and the things that I'm going to read to you later in this episode, are all found in Proverbs. And as I was looking through Proverbs, I just decided to make a little side turn on this doubt and fear and talk And because reverence kind of jumped out at me on the Webster dictionary definition, I wanted to kind of get into what a healthy fear is, and then we'll talk about doubt and fear either at the end of this episode or in the next episode. But the fear of the Lord, that's the reverence that Webster was talking about, that fear, the reverence. And that don't mean that you're shaking and, and, and scared of moving in the presence. It is just a reverence. It is a— the best way I can describe it is, is if you were going in to see the President of the United States, if you're here in America, or a king, you know, somebody that outranks you by a bunch, and you go in there with a reverence, that there's a respect. You just act different when you're in the presence of somebody with a huge authority and power. And for you to be able to acknowledge that, the fear of the Lord, the reverence of God, and one One of the things that I absolutely love about the Catholic religion is that the reverence that they have for the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, it is amazing. I love it. I mean, I love— I'm not a Catholic, don't really understand everything. I mean, I'm sure they don't understand me, most of them. It's amazing, the reverence that comes from the Lord's Supper. It's wonderful if you've ever been a part of that and watched that. There's a lot of things in a Catholic service that I don't understand, but that doesn't matter. I mean, I, again, I've told you before, I don't understand electricity, but I don't sit around in the dark till I figure it out. I flip the switch. I can look at something and appreciate it without having to understand it all. And if it works for people, you know, that's why we're all— we're talking about in a previous episode, we're all parts of the same body, but we're different parts of the same body. You know, the things that talk and speak to someone else's soul may not speak to mine, but that don't mean they're, they're wrong and we got to throw rocks at it. That they, they have the exact same Lord and Savior. They have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And if you declare with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead, you shall be saved. I don't know that there's any specific, you've got to do it this way or you're not saved. The true reverence that I see at a Catholic service on the Eucharist, on the Lord's Supper, is wonderful. And I don't know who needed to hear that. I hope I didn't offend anybody talking out of school because I really don't know what I'm talking about as far as all that goes with the Catholic religion. But since I was turning this from the fear— doubt and fear episode to talk about the fear of the Lord, I needed something, a kind of a picture in my mind. What I— you know, when I see something that is reverent, then someone is showing reverence to something. And what came to my mind was the reverence of the Eucharist at the Catholic service that I had seen. And it It was really wonderful, and I, I hope as we're reading these scriptures here in Proverbs, I want you to think about how you can apply these truths to your life. Because when I hear the word fear, or maybe when you hear the word fear, sometimes I get the wrong picture in my mind, like scared or nervous or anxious or fight or flight, that kind of thing, that, that nervousness that gets up in your belly. But that's not the fear of the Lord. And so let's go into Proverbs. I'm going to read a bunch of scriptures This is based on the Word of God because the Word is God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And if we're gonna destroy all this fear and doubt and unbelief, we have got to do it using the Word of God. Now let me get back to the fear of the Lord in Proverbs. The first one is right at the beginning in Proverbs 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 8:13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth, I hate. Proverbs 9:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 10:26. The fear of the Lord prolongs days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. Proverbs 14:26, 27. The fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. Proverbs 15:16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure with trouble. Proverbs 15:33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. Proverbs 16:6. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. Proverbs 19:23. The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction. He will not be visited with evil. Proverbs 22:4. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Proverbs 23:17-18. Do not let your heart envy sinners. Be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day, for surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off. Now I know that was a lot of scripture, and I know that I am not by far the best reader in the world, so you had to endure that. But you know, a little bit of struggle is probably going to make you stronger. So if that's the worst thing to happen today, listen to me read the word of God, then you're going to have a pretty decent day. I want to touch on a couple of these proverbs that kind of jumped off the page to me, and it goes back because I talked about in the previous— some previous episodes about the, the power of the seed and about being broken and humility. If you can kind of see a pattern kind of coming together with the humility, remember when we put on the whole armor of God, we talked about humbling ourselves first. In fact, I spent a whole week talking about putting on the armor, humbling yourself and being broken and surrendering. And then also the digging up the seed, getting your heart right to plant the soil, to plant the seed in the soil and make that— and make your heart correct. But humility is a big deal in God's kingdom, and it is something that I want to continue to stress, because if you will humble yourself before God, he won't have to humble you. It's a whole lot better if you do the humbling. But I want to touch on a couple of these Proverbs that I was talking about. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. And then Proverbs 22:4, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. And remember, when you see those ands, if you think about, you get all of those things. When you, you, like, if you're going to have somebody cash a check And it says, like, if it said Greg and Mona, then my wife and I would both have to sign it. If it says Greg or Mona, then one or the other. But when you have an 'and,' you get all of those things. So you get, 'With— by humility and fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.' So that's a huge promise. That is a wonderful reason to have humility and the fear of the Lord. And I think that's kind of why I wanted to start talking about this And it's kind of where God has got me. He wanted me to turn into the fear of the Lord before we started talking about doubt and fear that the world puts on you. We want the good stuff. We want the stuff that God wants you to have. And so I'm going to end that there. I am going to— I've been praying for you at the end of every episode, and this one's not going to be different. God, I thank you for whoever's listening to this podcast. You know right where they are, Lord. You know right where they are in their life, right? What's going on in their world. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would just help them with the fear of the Lord. Lord, this lesson that you've put on my heart, Lord, I pray that they could plant it in their heart and it will take root and it will grow into something wonderful, Lord. And then with humility, Lord, I pray that they would humble themselves before you and Lord, that you could then lift them up. And I thank you, Lord, and I love you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for listening to this episode, and I look forward to visiting you on the next one.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
