A Prescription for Health

Proverbs 3:7-8 "Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." 

 God has made a way for us to remain well and strong at all levels of our being. The process begins with fearing the Lord. This is not a dread or terror as of a tyrannical ruler, but a wholesome honour and awe of who God is, a heartfelt respect for what He does, and for the principles He teaches in His word. It means making Him so present in all areas of our lives that we will not want any part of evil. If there is to be a dread at all, it would be just that – an anxiousness to avoid doing anything that might affront our Lord or hamper our relationship with Him!  

This same wholesome fear and awe of God, precludes us from thinking of ourselves as wise in ourselves; experienced and confident in our own abilities without due acknowledgement that we need the Lord and cannot do without Him! When we become wise in our own eyes, we are proud and are attempting to impose our own thinking and ways over those God wants for us. This is not only self-deceiving, but also self-defeating because it replaces the true and God-honouring wisdom we are to have as believers.

We can make the mistake of claiming we honour and fear God and yet subscribe to ways of life which He considers evil. This is not wisdom from above! In serving God there must be a concerted effort to make our departure from what our Lord and Sovereign God sees as offensive to His holy nature. Second guessing God and His word is hardly living in awe of God!

True wisdom begins with fearing God. This is healthy and makes us vigorous at all levels, but self-conceit and arrogance can only bring ailment and self-destruction, whilst at the same time damaging relationship with others.

The 'navel', was seen as the centre of all human emotions, the place where the strongest feelings are formed and acted upon. We still refer in our modern language to the ‘butterflies’ in our belly and the ‘churning’ of stomach, or that 'gut' feeling, in an effort to describe certain emotions.

Fearing God and avoiding evil brings health to the navel and so is presented to us as a godly process of gaining and maintaining emotional stability and fortitude. In a modern world, with humanity marked by mounting troubled emotions and escalating mental traumas, we surely need an answer to our plight! God provides us with His prescription for the problem.

It has been said that the greatest evidence of the fear of God is obedience to Him. Perhaps we would not be hounded and conquered by so many fears and phobias, or overcome and destroyed by the ever-present stresses of life, if we truly obeyed and gave the correct place in our lives of honour and respect to God, the One who knows us best and loves us most! 



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion