But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. – Proverbs 1:33
I cannot pinpoint exactly how many times I have read the first chapter of Proverbs in my Christian life, but every time I read it, I come away with something new. It is not exactly new, but I always find something that comforts my heart and is applicable for whatever is occurring in the world at that time.
Today, verse 33 jumped off of the page at me. God gives us two promises in this verse, but we need to do something before we can have access to these promises. It says, But whoso hearkeneth unto me… The concordance states that the word hearkeneth means “to hear intelligently, to listen, to hear with obedience.” Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines it as follows: “to give respectful attention, to listen without much mental comment, to give heed to.” Both of these sources give a clear and similar definition of the word.
That being clarified, the Bible is telling us in this verse that IF we listen intelligently, IF we listen and hear with obedience, IF we give respectful attention to, and IF we do not waste too much time thinking about what we are hearing from the Lord and we instead just HEED what He says, we will receive TWO promises. When God promises something, He follows through with it!
DWELL SAFELY
When I read these two words, a sudden peace comes over me. This means, literally, that we can abide in peace without a care in the world! The word safely in the concordance literally means “without a care in the world.” God is telling me, “I promise! If you will just listen and obey what I am telling you to do, you will have rest.”
So many of the insecurities we feel as Christians are due to the fact that we do not really listen or obey when God tells us to do something. We worry about everything nowadays. Worry is a sin for a Christian. God promises all throughout Scripture that He will watch out for and care for us, but we need to learn to HEARKEN unto His commands in order to have the peace that allows us to live and to dwell without a care in the world! When we learn to really listen, obey, and live the way God wants us to do so, then we will show the world and others a peace that maybe, someday, they will want to have as well.
QUIET FROM FEAR OF EVIL
There is so much evil taking place in the world today. It is very hard to go a day without seeing or hearing about it at some point. God promises us that we CAN be quiet and have rest, even amongst all of the craziness happening around us. If we stay in the Word and follow closely to God’s plan for our lives, we can find peace!
It is so easy to let ourselves get caught up in all of the evil things happening today and to let them weigh us down and dampen our spirits. To be honest, I do not like to watch or listen to much of the news today. I laugh sometimes because I feel as though I am literally the one who is the last to know about events that are taking place! I do not do it to be ignorant or oblivious to what is occurring. I do it because I want to be quiet from all of the calamity, hurt, and distress out there.
Instead, I choose to start each day with the Lord, in the quietness of my living room, reading my Bible and listening to God. When I do that, I start my day safely, quieted from the fear of evil. My days are never completely free from the stress of life, but listening to God’s voice early each day brings me the promise of safety, refuge, and peace!
by April Hernandez
