How’s LIFE going for you?
Living in wealth and honor?
This week we celebrate the 4th of July and this year is officially half spent! June and July welcome us with summer…warmer weather, B-B-Q’s, beach days and family vacation time. School responsibilities take a short break and our focus changes. We look forward to “fun” time with our children and grandchildren unencumbered by pressure. Time to think, study, write and talk without the rush of a daily overtasked schedule crammed into days that are entirely too short! Most of us moms’ welcome summer…
Jungle life in the tropics offered two seasons… dry and rainy. The rhythm of life in the Darien and its inhabitants kept time for us. What we ate depended on what animals were available to hunt or catch in season. Life looked different than it does here in the states. However our motivation in that remote village was the same…to make a difference in the life of someone every day.
My husband and our two little princesses were my first daily focus. I needed a formula to give my life a goal that would keep me motivated. I knew I was created with destiny and my life had eternal purpose. I instantly saw the promise in the Proverbs 22: 4 verse, but I did not understand the two pre-requisites for achieving it.
What was the formula?
We are all influencing someone all the time. I wanted my life to make a difference …
The question was “HOW?”
The answer was locked up in that short, little verse of promise and instruction! It beckoned my attention because the promise was so inclusive, desirable and powerful.
Humility, the first pre-requisite in the verse, is my seeing my sinfulness (Jas. 4:17) in the light of His holiness! My personal experience is that His holiness is blinding!! Submission to Him is mandatory…God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The only authority of my life is the fullness of His Holy Spirit, who in verse 5 of James 4 says, He is “jealous for what belongs to God” …ME! Jas. 4: 1-6
The Fear of the Lord, the second stipulation, is to fear the consequence of sin and to understand that we are to live as examples of His grace, not excuses!
The promise that comes with living our life in HUMILITY
and THE FEAR OF THE LORD is
Wealth, Honor and Life!
Who doesn’t want that?
One requires a brokenness before an almighty God to all the things we hold dear…including and specifically… our self-life with all its wants and demands! It means an abandonment of our pride. The other requires an understanding of sin and its consequence.
We do whatever it takes to avoid both of these! Our culture accepts demanding our rights…do whatever it takes to get what we want and that there is no consequence for our actions! We can blame, rationalize or just plain lie and there is no personal judgment or responsibility. As a practice, we moms should be teaching our children to “think consequence” before a decision is made, not after!
I am here to tell you that one formula leads to destruction and the other, a biblical plan, (Proverbs 22:4) that comes with a promise, leads to a dynamic and successful Life!
“Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing”! Psa. 34: 9
Which will you choose?
Humility + fear of God = wealth, honor and life
OR
Pride +no fear of God or consequence = destruction of self, family and home!
A triumphant life or a defeated life
Your choice!
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
