“By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.”
Proverbs 22:4
Riches and honor and life are the rewards of the righteous. And how do they come? They come by humility and the fear of the Lord. Glory to God! Living for God pays off richly!
Notice the two requirements for riches, honor, and life. They are humility and the fear of the Lord. Let’s talk about both of these.
Humility means to be humble, which means to have an honest, modest opinion of yourself. It’s basically acknowledging that you can’t really do anything without God. Its the opposite of pride. So the first step towards riches and honor and life is to recognize that God is reason you can do anything well. Don’t get a big head because you think you are great at something or because you think you are good looking or naturally talented. You don’t have squat without God. He provides the air you breath, what if He decided not to give you anymore air? How good do you think you would be then?
Now on the flip side of that, it is also a form of pride in the other direction, that is, thinking too down on yourself. When you think down on yourself and call yourself a loser you are spitting in God’s face by basically telling him that He screwed up when He made you. Quit it! It’s a sin against God.
So be humble, and think about yourself the way the Word of God says for you to think about yourself. That’s the first step towards riches and honor and life. The next step is the fear of the Lord.
What is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord means to have a healthy fear of who God is. It means that you respect Him, like you would respect a good father. That means that you do what He says. That means you live to please Him and not to please people. It means that you obey His commandments.
When you live your life in humility and the fear of the Lord, you begin to put yourself into a position to receive God’s blessings. You set yourself up to be a receipent of the riches and honor and life that God has for you! Hallelujah!
Hal Chaffee 