Proverbs 9: 10-11
How often do we fear someone/something because of negative self-perception? –believing the lies of inadequacy, rejection, worthlessness, and so on and so on. Fearing circumstances, people, responses, and opinions, simply because we don’t know, or haven’t quite taken enough time to remember, our right standing before the Lord.
Loved. Accepted. Righteous. Enough.
When we remember love, and let it purify the lens of ourselves, fear is dismantled and cured. Jesus’ standard for us becomes ours; to be children of promise, loved and whole. As we’re journeying through the book of Proverbs and diving into what living alongside wisdom looks like, we see Solomon outline and personify wisdom in depth, to be a guide for believers in how to seek and operate within wisdom’s promise.
Proverbs 9:10-12 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you scoff, you alone will bear it.”
Why does Solomon choose the word fear, and why is fear the beginning of wisdom? It seems odd, because fear is something we fairly easily associate with the lies that can fuel negative self-perception. Solomon’s use of the word fear in verse 10 is not that kind of fear. It’s actually the opposite, because this fear requires us to remember love. This fear is reverence. It’s awe. It’s wonder. It’s thanksgiving. The fear of the Lord is remembering love and the mountains it moved to free us and position us in right standing before God, once more. It’s remembering the majesty God and the sacrifice made at the cross. It advocates and believes for a redeemed self-perception, not a negative one riddled with lies and whispers of the enemy. The fear of the Lord and the knowledge of the Holy one are the beginning of wisdom. It’s the beginning of having love purify our lenses of Jesus and of ourselves.
I love how The Message puts 11 and 12, “It’s through me, Lady Wisdom, that your life deepens, and the years of your life ripen. Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life; mock life and life will mock you.” Living within that fear, reverence, wonder, of the Lord and knowing his heart is where our life deepens and matures. If we give wisdom permission to fill our lives, she will. As we remember love as wisdom instructs, we’ll grow in our knowledge of the heart of God and our paths will be made straight.
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