Health and Strength

Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

It will be health to your flesh,

and strength to your bones.

Proverbs 3:7-8

Here it is again--this concept of fearing the Lord, and what such healthy fear produces in our lives. God is not a mean God, but we must understand that He is just. He is not arbitrary in His decisions or commandments, rather He is deliberate in following His own eternal plan, and everything He does has eternal purpose and reason. Fearing Him--giving Him honor and reverence and respect and love--is the best thing we can ever do for ourselves.

Sometimes our own image of ourselves gets a little big in our own eyes. As I joked with a friend just tonight--People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who do. When we start thinking that we are the ones who know it all and that no one else can add to us, when we start thinking that we are the only ones who are right and everyone else is wrong, when we start thinking that we always know best and everybody had better fall in line and follow our lead, that's when we really need to take a step back and ask ourselves, who am I really, and what do I really know?

That's why Solomon writes here, Don't be wise in your own eyes. Paul would say it this way: Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought. Take heed when you think you stand, for then you fall. The Bible is replete with warnings that our trust should never be in ourselves, because we fail and are prone to failure. We are going to make mistakes, we are going to mess things up, because we are not perfect. We are not all knowing, all powerful. We are not God.

Instead of trusting ourselves, we need to trust in the Lord--we need to fear the Lord, and those who fear the Lord depart from evil. When we fear the Lord, we choose not to displease Him or dishonor Him or discredit Him in anyway. When we fear the Lord we choose not to yield to temptation. When we fear the Lord, we choose not to sin. And that choice, based in the fear of the Lord, brings life and health and strength and peace to our lives!