Fear

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7)

All around us, especially with Halloween coming, are images of fear.

The movies this time of year are for people who want to pay good money to be scared. As if the world isn’t scary enough on it’s own!

Walking in any kind of manmade fear is not God’s plan for your life. We were created to walk in His peace. Man’s fall into sin brought fear to the earth. Adam and Eve were never afraid until they sinned and disobeyed God. They hid from him. Why? Through their sin, fear entered the world.

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I found the following on gotquestions.org: God’s desire for us is a completely different kind of fear. In the Bible, the word translated “fear” can mean several things:

• It can refer to the terror one feels in a frightening situation (Deuteronomy 2:25).
• It can mean “respect” in the way a servant fears his master and serves him faithfully (Joshua 24:14).
• Fear can also denote the reverence or awe a person feels in the presence of greatness (Isaiah 6:5).
• The fear of the Lord is a combination of all of these.

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This verse at the top of this devotion compares a wise person with a fool who despises God’s instruction and cannot be told what to do based on where we seek knowledge and the attitude of how we seek it.

If we seek His wisdom, then we will go about our day with “fear,” i.e. reverence for and obedience to the Lord.