Kevin Swanson asks, "Is God the great marshmallow grandpa in the sky, or the great tyrannical ogre in the sky?" Who is God? How should we think of Him? How does fear figure into our understanding of God?
Various attributes of God are listed in Ex 34:6-7:
“And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."
In Matt 11:28-30, Jesus explained Himself:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
God shows us mercy by being kind unto us:
Psalm 117:2 "For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!"
In Psalm 141:5 David shows how discipline and rebuke are marks of kindness:
“Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.”
The apostle Paul tells the Ephesian church of His tenderheartedness and how they ought to imitate Him:
Ephesians 4:32 “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”