** Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.** Proverbs 31:30
Fame, friends, beauty all have a temporary reward. They are enjoyed for a season and then they are gone. Regardless of the time, effort or money that we invest in them, sooner or later we lose our popularity, friends move on, and physical beauty fades away with the years.
The Lord offers us something everlasting. Something that brings earthly and eternal reward. To fear Him.
Not to be terrified of Him. Not cowering in fear, waiting for thunder and lightning bolts to strike, like I thought of Him as a young child. But knowing that being close to Him brings blessing and running far from Him brings hardships and suffering and trials. The farther we are from God the darker life becomes. We fear what life is like without him.
Psalm 128:1 tells us that **Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. **
Blessed…HAPPY…. are those that fear the Lord…..that WALK in his ways.
Walk…step by step…minute by minute…day by day…
To fear the Lord means that we know the difference between good and evil….and we choose good. It means we are conscious of God’s laws and his person and decide that we want to please him and keep him close. It is about inviting him to share every moment of our days and to seek his pleasure in all that we do.
The P31 woman fears the Lord …
….She loves and honors her husband because it pleases God–not because it is easy to do.
…She cares for her family, sacrificing her energy and time and asking the Lord for the strength and grace and wisdom for each task.
…She puts her job or business ventures in his hand and trusts him with its success or its failure.
…She prays for a giving heart, a generous spirit and depends on the Lord to fulfill his promises to provide all her needs and those of her family.
…She allows her husband to shine in his own way. To be amongst men that will help him to grow and gain more wisdom. She prays for godly mentors for him.
…She speaks as Jesus speaks, with grace, mercy, kindness, wisdom and counsel.
… She seeks blessing and prosperity for those she loves. She is willing to go unnoticed for a season.
…**She shall be praised**….by her husband, her children and most importantly, by the Lord himself. Because she pleases him with her life, her decisions, her heart, her words and her actions. She has put all of it in his hands and walks peacefully at his side every day.
She is God-Centered. He has preeminence in her life.
She is the virtuous woman.