Fear of the Lord – Proverbs 19:23

I’ve been reading Proverbs in the morning and recently a few scriptures really stuck out to me.  Proverbs 19:23 says “The fear of the Lord leads to life, And he who has it will abide in satisfaction; He will not be visited with evil.”  This really struck me because I thought, what an awesome promise!!  Fear the Lord and you will not be visited with evil.  That’s a promise I definitely want to claim.  Then today I read Proverbs 22:4 “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.”  Wow those things sound pretty good too!

I got to wondering, what does it mean to truly fear the Lord?  At first glance, fear seems synonymous with being afraid or scared.  Does God really want us to walk around being afraid that he may strike us at any wrong turn or move we make?  I’m not sure this fits in with other scriptures that remind me of His great love.  I looked up the Hebrew for “fear” and in this context it is “yirah” meaning fear or reverence.  Reverence means deep respect for someone or something.  Yirah also means admiration or an overwhelming sense of God’s worth and glory.  Wow so what does this mean?

This is my interpretation of the Hebrew definition, Fearing the Lord means = having an appreciation for the depths of God’s love; remembering that having a safe and smooth delivery (or fill in the blank _______) wasn’t just luck, but God’s perfect promise and protection; standing in awe of His creation; and last but not least praising Him for the awesome work that He has started in all of us.

So to receive riches, honor, and life we need to remember how AWEsome our God is and worship Him for his goodness and faithfulness. 

What do you think about fearing the Lord?