I love how this Proverb starts out. It is like a woman prepping for a party.
She has prepped her home, set the table, made the food, mixed the drinks…. and then she sends out the invites!
She invites the guest to come in, eat and drink… and “walk in the way of insight”.
See, she is not just an average person. The “woman” hosting the party….she is WISDOM.

She is crying out for us to lift up our heads and take notice.
She is trying to get our attention.
She has set a table and made all the arrangements.
Now she is waiting on us to come.

When we scroll down to verse 10, it says “The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of all wisdom”.
This used to freak me out a bit. Like, why would God want me to be afraid of him?
But then I remember someone explaining to me that the word “fear” in this context meant respect and honour.
When we respect and honour the Lord (meaning God, Jesus and Holy Spirit) then we are in a position to actually have wise thoughts and actions.

Verse 12 reads “If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you”…
This sort of feels like “wisdom” is a person, who can reward us.
I love how the word of God often creates these kind of pictures.
Here, wisdom rewards us… why? because we honour the Lord.

So let’s just break this down for a sec… how to we honour the Lord?

1. Spending time with him in prayer and meditation. Stright up talk to God. Nothing you say will surprise Him.
He just wants to hear your heart and then listen so you can start to hear His heart too.

2. Allowing His word to become the final authority in our lives.
This means, when you see what the bible has to say about things, you make a real internal decision to submit to that and respect it.

3. Finding out what moves Gods heart, and honouring Him by serving in those areas. For example, God cares about the orphans, widows, the poor, the hungry, the vulnerable…. how can we help serve and protect them?)
Jesus made it clear that how we treat the forgotten, the broken, the poor…. reflect how we honour Him.

4. Watching our tongue… our words can either honour or dishonour. Our words bring either life or death to any situation.

There have been times in my life when I really honoured God and times when I have done my own thing.
Let’s just say, doing my own thing did not work out too well. God will let us choose, but he will also let us feel the consequences of those choices.
Yes, we decide what we will do, but God is not gonna be mocked either.

So what are some rewards of “fearing” the Lord?
Based on Proverbs 9…

1. Wisdom and understanding: So you and I are not flailing, trying to figure out how to handle life.
We will have a good head on our shoulders. We will know how to treat people. We will make good business decisions. We will eat good food.

2. Long Life: Scripture says "your days will be many and YEARS will be added to your life". How rad is that!? Wisdom from God literally alters the length of your life.

When you think about it, WISDOM is the best thing we could have in life. It affects every decision, our work, how we treat people, our health… everything!
So if WISDOM is inviting you to her home for dinner, will you come?

This year I want to be at the table with WISDOM. I got a lot to learn.
What about you?

Melanie