But a Woman That Fears the Lord

I think my favorite verse in Proverbs 31 is verse 30; “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised”. These are wonderful and encouraging words. Now I believe I have mentioned before that “fear” here does not mean to actually be afraid of the Lord. Instead it means to revere or respect. To set God apart as Holy. When I think about people that I respect I realize how much I care about their opinion and insight. I desire to hear their advice. And so it should be with God more than any other person in our lives.

                Yet, how easy is it to listen to other people’s advice and wisdom and ignore God’s voice? How often do we get impatient and give up on hearing God’s answer or solution? If we truly want to fear God this means we must respect His opinion and His answer above all else. To do this we must be patient and wait for His answer, understanding that sometimes His answer is no and sometimes His answer is silence. I think about how much I respect my parents’ advice and opinions. One of my greatest desires is to have them be proud of what I am doing and who I have become. This is the same desire we should have for God. God is the best parent out there. He created us. He knows us and knows our desires. God knows our thoughts and our fears. He has a plan and a future designed specifically for each one of us. His goal is not to harm us, but to help us grow into strong, smart, productive and loving Christ followers. I wonder how many times we are afraid to listen to God’s voice, because we think He is going to throw a wrench in our plans. How many times do we ignore His voice, because His answer doesn’t seem to fit into our idea of what should happen? I don’t know about you, but I want to be a woman who truly fears the Lord, even if His answer is not what I am looking for.