Lady Wisdom Seeks to be Heard"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." Psalm 111:10
The benefits of wisdom cannot be measured. If we read the first few chapters of of the Book of Proverbs, we realize that Wisdom is crying out to be heard! She must have something significant for us.
Scripture does give us some specific blessings if we will count ourselves among those who are living in obedient, submissive, reverence to God. I've listed a few below:
Psalm 25:12 Who, then, are those who fear the LORD? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
Some of us ask for direction, but we forget that God does not teach everyone equally but shares His wisdom with those who take it seriously. God does not commit to teach those who will not fear him. Those who do have a divine guide!
Psalm 25:14 Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him. With them he shares the secrets of his covenant.
Intimate friendship!
Prov. 10:27 The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.
This does not say how long you will live. But how many stories have you heard of someone’s life being cut short because of foolish behavior? We will live longer lives with fear of the Lord as part of them.
Proverbs 19:23 The reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it rests satisfied; he cannot be visited with [actual] evil. (Amplified Bible)
Satisfaction! Those who fear God, who live to serve to worship, to love will be satisfied, and will be protected from evil. “Deliver us from evil…” Who could turn that down? The same promise is echoed in Prov. 22:4…
Prov. 22:4 The payoff for meekness and fear of God is plenty and honor and a satisfying life. (The Message)
The payoff? Interesting way to put it. And the payoff for a foolish life lived pursing pleasure, or lived having God in your life on your terms? The opposite! Financial struggles, disgrace or at least disrespect, lack of trust from others, and a life of frustration.
It seems the next scripture, Proverbs 14:26, can be translated two ways. Either is wonderful. Take a look.
Prov. 14:26 Those who fear the LORD have a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. (TNIV)
Those of us with children want to leave a legacy of faith.
Proverbs 14:26 In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence; and His children will have a place of refuge. (NKJV)
Christians who fear the Lord are not wimps or pushovers. If we fear the Lord and begin to understand what that really means (and, more importantly, who GOD really is) we need not fear anything else. The fear of the Lord will give you strength, courage and confidence!
Those are some powerful blessing, aren't they?
The benefits of wisdom cannot be measured. If we read the first few chapters of of the Book of Proverbs, we realize that Wisdom is crying out to be heard! She must have something significant for us.
Scripture does give us some specific blessings if we will count ourselves among those who are living in obedient, submissive, reverence to God. I've listed a few below:
Psalm 25:12 Who, then, are those who fear the LORD? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
Some of us ask for direction, but we forget that God does not teach everyone equally but shares His wisdom with those who take it seriously. God does not commit to teach those who will not fear him. Those who do have a divine guide!
Psalm 25:14 Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him. With them he shares the secrets of his covenant.
Intimate friendship!
Prov. 10:27 The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.
This does not say how long you will live. But how many stories have you heard of someone’s life being cut short because of foolish behavior? We will live longer lives with fear of the Lord as part of them.
Proverbs 19:23 The reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it rests satisfied; he cannot be visited with [actual] evil. (Amplified Bible)
Satisfaction! Those who fear God, who live to serve to worship, to love will be satisfied, and will be protected from evil. “Deliver us from evil…” Who could turn that down? The same promise is echoed in Prov. 22:4…
Prov. 22:4 The payoff for meekness and fear of God is plenty and honor and a satisfying life. (The Message)
The payoff? Interesting way to put it. And the payoff for a foolish life lived pursing pleasure, or lived having God in your life on your terms? The opposite! Financial struggles, disgrace or at least disrespect, lack of trust from others, and a life of frustration.
It seems the next scripture, Proverbs 14:26, can be translated two ways. Either is wonderful. Take a look.
Prov. 14:26 Those who fear the LORD have a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. (TNIV)
Those of us with children want to leave a legacy of faith.
Proverbs 14:26 In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence; and His children will have a place of refuge. (NKJV)
Christians who fear the Lord are not wimps or pushovers. If we fear the Lord and begin to understand what that really means (and, more importantly, who GOD really is) we need not fear anything else. The fear of the Lord will give you strength, courage and confidence!
Those are some powerful blessing, aren't they?
Tomorrow I'll end this little series with a "how to" about fearing God.
1 comment:
Dear Singing Owl,
We are a blog research team from Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, Michigan State University (http://www.tc.msu.edu/). We would like to ask for your kind help with “Social Cognitive Perspective of Blogging”, a dissertation research conducted by Xun Liu (http://www.msu.edu/~liuxun/), a PhD student in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University.
Your opinions are very important to us and you are an ideal candidate to help. We would like very much to hear from you, and would greatly appreciate your time and willingness to respond.
Without your help, this kind of research would be impossible.
Please take a few minutes to read and answer the questionnaire on our research Web site: http://projectile.is.cs.cmu.edu/blogSurvey/PilotUS/ The survey has two parts. You may finish the Part One today. It should take about 25 minutes of your time, and your answers will be very valuable. We will contact you two weeks later and invite you to participate in Part Two of the online survey. The Part Two online survey will take 10 minutes or less to complete.
Participation is completely voluntary but, of course, greatly appreciated. We will mail you $3 cash upon completion of the Part One survey and $5 cash upon completion of the Part Two survey in appreciation of your participation. You must be between the ages of 18 and 65 to participate.
Your identity will be protected because responses will be coded to provide anonymity; No personal names will be used. If you have any questions about the study or the questionnaire, please do not hesitate contacting us at your convenience. In the near future, we will be happy to share our results with you.
Thank you so much for your time and kind help!
Yours,
Xun Liu
Ph.D Candidate
Mass Media PhD Program
Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media
Michigan State University
liuxun@msu.edu
http://www.msu.edu/~liuxun
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