Proverbs 22:4

Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life ~ Proverbs 22:4


Sometimes we look more at the last part of this verse before the first part. Wages and riches and honor and life are all important, but when it comes to God, those are blessings for a life that is lived in a right way. Humility is the fear of the Lord and that is what is most important in this verse. This is because God is more worried about our character than anything else. If I do not live with humility, I will not set him as all important, for the very act of humility is to set oneself as less important. I have lived that way and it is not the way I want to live again. The Lord now is my all-important guide; it is him I worship and him I praise. I cannot truly find my life when he is placed as second or third in it. Whatever pleasures, whatever blessings I receive from the Lord they even are secondary as they become a gift to me, and not something I have earned because I worked hard, or because I did something to deserve it. I would rather go through pain knowing I was following the Lord than to receive a gift for doing what “I thought” was best. Wages are not earned by loving God and obeying him in all he asks us to do. This verse puts it that way, that we earn a wage for being humble, but what he asks for is our dying to oneself. We give the Lord the best of ourselves by giving up what we want to then desire what he wants, and he is faithful to grant to us his love in the many ways he reaches back to us. The Lord has had to work on my character, and he continues to do so. I have come to trust in him and rely upon him as the years of my faith have added up. I want to be more like him. Life, riches, honor, they are all wonderful, but to have his character – that is my ultimate desire!

Pastor Julia

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