*Text: Prov. 9: 10*

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”

It is very important that we understand what it means to live with the fear of the Lord if we desire to be effective believers in our world. Our text this morning says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy is understanding. This scriptures clearly states that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. The fear referred to here is not an unhealthy fear that seek to terrify us and drive us away from the presence of God. God loves us and so much desire that we fellowship with Him and we can’t do that if we are afraid of Him. The fear we are talking about here is the fear that makes us reverence and respect God. This fear helps us to have an understanding of what is right and helps to make us obedient to God and His ways.

Our culture is so casual these days that it is sometimes difficult to understand what it means to reverence God. It is true that He loves us unconditionally and accepts us as we are when we come to Him, but He loves us too much to live us the way we are. We can become everything that He wants us to be as we learn to follow His wisdom in every area of our lives, but we will not be able to follow His wisdom until we believe that it is the only way to live. It’s so important for us to understand that God is always right and whatever He tells us to do is for our good.

How then does the fear of the Lord lead to wisdom? Beyond reverence for God, fear of God also implies a dread for the wrath of God. That is, avoidance of anything that will attract the wrath of God. Although God is love and He does loves us, He is also a God of judgement who does will not allow sin to go unpunished. If we know and believe this about God then we will avoid anything that will make us a candidate for His anger and punishment. It is lack of wisdom for anyone who has known and identified as a God of that punishes unrighteousness to continue to walk the path of rebellion and sin. When we truly fear God therefore, we will develop the wisdom to stay away from anything that bring His wrath upon us.

The knowledge of God is also very important if we will fear Him as we should. The more we know of God, the more we will reverence and dread any path that will make us provoke Him to wrath. It is therefore important that we give ourselves to learning more of God so we can increase in our knowledge of Him and the more we grow in our knowledge of God the more we fear Him and the more we fear Him, the more we increase in wisdom. Shalom

Prayer Points

1. Thank you Father for planting your fear in my heart which gives me an understanding of what is right and helps to make me obedient to you and your ways.

2. Father thank you for loving me unconditionally and for accepting me just as I am

3. Father please teach me more and more to know what it means to reverence you in Jesus name

4. Father please help me become everything that you wants me to be even as I learn to follow your wisdom in every area of my life in Jesus name

5. Father please help me to avoid anything that will attract your wrath upon my life in Jesus name.