Wednesday, September 16, 2015

In our last visit we began to amplify the third point in our outline of the fear of the Lord as found in Proverbs. That point is this: When you fear the Lord your life will change for the better – you’ll be blessed. First, you’ll be blessed intellectually. Then volitionally. There’s a connection between fearing the Lord and shunning evil according to Proverbs 3:7. This is again emphasized in Proverbs 14:16, “A wise man fears the Lord and shuns evil.” Proverbs 16:6 reads, “through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil.” There seems to be a progressive intentionality in these verses. At first you are encouraged to both fear God and shun evil. Then, if a person is wise he will naturally fear God and shun evil. And when that happens, the fear of the Lord will become the motivation for avoiding evil. At first you are in the environment of an evil world and challenged to fear the Lord and shun evil. As you read and study God’s Word you become wiser. You see things for what they are. You see the Lord as sovereign and worthy of praise and reverence. You see evil as the enemy of your soul. As evil confronts you, you shun it, because you realize it interferes with your reverence for and worship of God. The closer you draw to God the more sensitized you become of evil and you find ways to avoid it whenever possible. You are humble enough to realize you will always be vulnerable to the enticements of evil, but you work at drawing closer and closer to God, and trusting in Him, find the strength to shun and avoid evil. You become volitionally stronger and healthier.