Day 11
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. Prov 15:33
I have never seen this verse before. Well I have - I've read the bible cover to cover - but I never noticed it before, especially the second half. We hear all the time how pride comes before a fall (which in itself is a mercy from God) but you rarely hear ‘humility comes before honor’. Why? Is it because we have placed emphasis on what should be avoided rather than what we should do instead? I want to use today to touch on what we should be doing as believers.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. This literally means that wisdom instructs us to fear the Lord. Fear in relation to God generally means to have the proper reverence and awe for Him. There is no way to do this without getting to know Him. How do you get to know Him? By spending time with Him? How do you do that? Reading His Word, talking with Him (AKA praying), discussing with other believers about Him, worshiping Him, honoring and obeying His instructions.
Before honor is humility. This literally means that the last bus stop before honor is humility, you can’t skip humility and still end up at honor’s dormot. Anything worthy of honor comes from God so in order to have access to that, we must submit to His teaching and training. We have to spend time in His presence to know more of Him, see above and rinse and repeat. Pro 25:2 says it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. There’s that word honor again. The honor is found through searching for the things God has concealed and you cannot do that without submitting to Him.
You have to stay in the Word of God, study it, meditate on it, know it deeply. Ignorance is fatal.
For the longest time, I was considered naive and foolish. I kept hearing it over and over again and the decisions I kept making reinforced it. I finally got fed up a few years ago, I was tired of bumbling around.
When you have that awareness, all you have to do is ask for help. Simple as ‘Help me God, I don't know what to do’ but how do you say that if you can’t accept you are lost and helpless without God? There’s that humility again.
Major tip: the awareness that something is wrong with your current state is in itself a mercy of God, lean into Him for help immediately.
Don’t be fooled to think that humility is for chumps, nah sister. Na we go reign oh, literally lol.
At the end of the day, humility before God is a goal!!
The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life Prov 22:4
When I asked God for help, He used the most unusual ways to refine me and prune me. I told Him I did not want to be foolish and naive anymore and today, He has given me the gift of wisdom and the journey is still ongoing. There is something that asking does, it creates an awareness of the secret desires of your heart, it creates expectation and it leads to thanksgiving.