Fear & Flourish

“…Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh…” (Proverbs 3:7-8)

These verses stood out to me in my reading today. They’re important to understand and even more important to apply. There are three main points and they build sequentially upon each other.

1.Fear the LORD

This is essential. If God is not rightly respected the following points of the verses fall flat.

Fear of the LORD is the beginning (Prov. 9:10) and the beginning of freedom from sin.

2.Turn from Evil

We must turn from evil. The cold hard truth, however, is that we won’t unless we know and love the LORD. Actually, we’ll even have confusion as to what evil is.

But, we must turn and even run from evil. If we don’t it will be our downfall. It will be our downfall in a million ways. The start will be subtle but the end will be slow suffocation. Choking out life.

If we turn away from evil, we will…

3.Experience Healing

God, as God, knows how life is to be lived. He knows because He created all life. When we turn from the destructive nature of sin, we turn to the good God intended for us. And it’s life giving. It brings medicine to our bones (v. 8).

So, let’s fear the LORD, turn from evil, and experience the flourishing God has in mind for humanity.