Proverbs 9:10 clearly establishes the need to fear the Lord if we would be wise and gain an understanding of life. The Lord asks: “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?” (Malachi 1:6). How do we fear the Lord? Psalm 34:1-11 gives us ideas on how we fear the Most High God. One, we must magnify the Lord for who He is. It takes the appreciation of God to fear Him. The Psalmist says:

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens…When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.
Psalms 8:1,3

Secondly, we must put our total trust in Him. Lack of trust in God may cause us to disobey Him like Adam and Eve did. They repeated what God had told them but the serpent countered it, thereby calling God a liar. Genesis 3:4-5 says, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God cloth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” If Adam and Eve had had the fear of God in them, the devil would not have had his way in their lives. Here we can see that, indeed, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10).

Joseph is a classic example of someone who demonstrated the fear of God. Due to his fear of the Lord, he refused to take advantage of the adulterous offer of his master’s wife. He refused to commit sexual immorality and told Potiphar’s wife:

There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:9

Fear the Lord and keep His commandment. When you do, the type of blessing that later came upon Joseph (Genesis 41:14) will also be your portion.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.