“In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence,
And his children will have a refuge.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
That one may turn away from the snares of death.”
Proverbs 14:26, 27
As a child our first introduction to being afraid is often times related to their being monsters under our bed or in the basement. How many siblings have sent their siblings before them to check and see if there were monsters hiding in the closet or going to jump out at them when they went into the basement? I know my girls did thisJ Now as adults, we may have something that we are afraid of though we may not verbalize what that exactly is or may not even be aware of that thing we are fearful of.
These verses referring to the “fear of the Lord” is not telling us that when we are afraid of God we will have confidence. Those two thoughts seem to be an oxymoron of sorts. When we are afraid we will have confidence. Usually, when we are afraid we lack confidence. Remember the sibling sending their sibling in to check under the bed, in the closet, or down the basement stairs to check to make sure it was safe? There was no confidence in what could have been only confidence in the “all clear” from the sibling.
The “fear of the Lord” means to reverence or hold the Lord in the highest of esteem. So we might ask ourselves how holding the Lord in the highest of esteem will produce confidence in our lives. Let’s go back to the example of my daughters. The one who was afraid had confidence in the one who gave the “all clear.” She trusted in what her sister told her. She had faith in the words of the sister who declared “all was clear.”
So we can have confidence in life if we trust in the Lord and follow His commands. Do we live by the principles that He has given to us in His Word, or do we live how we think we ought to live?
As we live out our lives daily following the principles that God has given us in His Word, we will have confidence. When we choose to live life adverse to the principles in God’s Word, we will live in fear.
Our next verse likens the fear of the Lord to a fountain. Have you ever been so thirsty and all you could think about was a cool glass of refreshing water? When we fear the Lord, we are satiating the desires that our heart is seeking for satisfaction. We think that if we obey the Lord then we cannot have what we want and our needs will not be met. When we believe this, we are believing a lie. God is our Creator and who better to tell us what we need and how to live then our Creator.
Have you ever put something together or gotten out the operator’s manual so you knew how to put that thing together or how to operate your new gadget? We may even watch a YouTube video so we better know how to operate our new gadget or put together our new item. One wouldn’t look at the instructions for a highchair when you are trying to put together a crib. Each has it’s own individual instruction manual. So it is when we try to live life without looking at what God’s Word says in how we are to live. When we try to do things our own way and not follow after God’s way of doing things, we will lack confidence and our thirst will never be quenched.
When we fear God, we want to know what God says about how we are to live life so we can have confidence in living. Wouldn’t you rather get the “all clear” from God who made you in His Image rather than something else that will lead you astray?
Fearing God takes trust that He is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. So it took my daughters trusting in their siblings that when they said it was “all clear” it really was “all clear.” I never did hear anybody screaming through my house that there was something scary in the closet, under the bed, or in the basement. The coast was always clear.
