The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Proverbs 8:13
When we fear The Lord, genuinely reverencing His holiness as we ought, it will be obvious; by what we like but also by what we DON'T LIKE. Today's verse explains that to dislike evil, pride, arrogance, evil ways, and frowardness will be a natural fruit of the honoring fear we hold for The Lord. What do I mean by "honoring fear"? We ought not to fear God like we fear spiders or flying; rather, the word is better described as respect. This kind of fear is not a shaking-in-your-shoes terror but a quiet, calm reverence. God is our Father, and He is a loving Father. There is no reason to fear One Who loves us like He loves us. He seeks only our best, girls. He is the kindest, most gentle Father, nurturing His children with tender compassion.
The fear that should be within each of us is a peaceful respect that will lead us to naturally hate that which He hates. All of the things today's verse lists are pretty self-explanatory, except for one word that I wanted to call your attention to. Froward. I've heard this word mispronounced as forward, and we all know what that means. But, the word froward means being habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition. In other words, rebellious. If we plug that definition into the verse, we realize that the Lord hates a rebellious mouth. Words or tones that are sassy and insolent are not pleasing to the Lord. Let's be careful to not be froward in our speech.
Scripture Reading for the Day:
Proverbs 8
I Peter 5
Being sassy in my tone is something I tend to struggle with, I pray that God will help me to work in that.
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