Proverbs 28:14

Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always,
    but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.  

What do you really fear? The Bible speaks of a proper fear, namely a reverence and great respect for who God is and what he has done. We tend to think that to be truly happy, fear should be absent. The opposite is really true: we are “blessed” (happy) when we fear God and always happy when we fear "always."

Proverbs 28:14 contrasts the one who fears God and the one who has little regard for God and who hardens his heart to the things of God. The one who fears God knows certain things about God: God is holy, just, righteous, and good. He also lives to please God, to honor and reverence this great God. He distrusts his own tendency and relies on God, knowing that from God he receives all good things. Therefore, he seeks to avoid what would displease God and seeks to keep his conscience free from evil. One who fears God lives “by faith” and would be counted with those listed in Hebrews 11. He is happy and content in God’s world and in his ordering of all things.

To not live in the fear of God is to bring troubles and “fall into calamity.” This is nothing less than the natural man—a man without God. He receives not the instruction of God’s Word and falls into sin. Such sin is a result of the hardening of the heart.

Continue to fear God and not man. Live in faith to God and to his promises.   

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