Title
It Begins In Godly Fear
Scripture
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.
(Proverbs 8:13)
Devotional
Who do you fear and what do you hate? The world fears the thought of giving up their sin, and hates God for calling them to do so. What is it of the Lord that you fear? It is good to fear His judgment, His wrath, even His presence. These things should keep us from sin, and if we are wise, will cause us to hate it. In like manner, we should fear disappointing God, causing Him sorrow. Above all, we should fear shunning His great love for us. Because He loves us so very much, we love Him. (1) It is the overwhelming love of God that should cause us to fear Him the most and vehemently hate all evil: pride, arrogance, the evil way, the perverse mouth.
“The fear of the Lord” or “fear the Lord” occurs fifteen times in the book of Proverbs. To fear God is the beginning of our growth in Him. (2) “Beginning” in the Hebrew means “the start”. We cannot gain knowledge of spiritual things if we begin at the wrong point. If we fail to fear the Lord, we will not learn to hate sin and if we do not learn to hate sin, we will be ignorant of the things of God.
(1) 1 John 4:19, (2) Proverbs 1:7
Text For The Day
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.
Thought For The Day
“The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.” Oswald Chambers, The Highest Good. Chambers was born on July 24, 1874 in Aberdeen Scotland, where he became a Christian during his teen years under the ministry of Charles Spurgeon.
Questions To Ponder
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Do you fear anything more than you fear God?
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Should there be anything that we fear more than Him?
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What does it mean to fear God? Consider Hebrews 12:28-29.
Morning Study Guide
Defining: “Fear” in Scripture is used to express a filial (that of a son or daughter) or a slavish passion. In good men, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subjects of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being, and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience. This is filial fear. From Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English language
Referencing: “By the fear of the Lord one departs from evil,” Proverbs 16:6.
Applying: Proverbs 3:7 gives us great application, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.”