Anna Faith Fuller: Hello, this is Anna Faith, and welcome to episode 50 of Faith Talks. Wow, can you believe that? We have made it to 50 episodes here on the Faith Talks podcast. We are just so humbled and amazed at how God has allowed us to be part of the Thee Generation podcast and specifically encourage teen girls and young adult ladies in their walk of faith. So thank you to all of our listeners that have faithfully listened to us for 50 episodes now, or some of them at least.

We are just so blessed at this opportunity to share truth and encourage each of our listeners walk of faith. well in the past episode the last one that we had jan and judson did a podcast on being a coffee bean and if you haven’t listened to that yet and you’re hearing that title for the first time you probably are asking what that is all about well i will not steal the thunder or try to summarize but i was encouraged um to say the least in listening to that a couple days ago and i would definitely encourage you to go back and give it a listen and be encouraged in your walk of faith. Well, my husband has joined me once again for another podcast today. And me and Janet are kind of going back and forth with our husbands right now.

And although we do not have as intriguing or creative a title as Janet Judson had, we have some really encouraging, important truths to share. And we hope that it will be a blessing to you today. We will be discussing what might seem a little bit ironic, and that is faith and fear going together. But what we’ll see today in Proverbs 1 is that in order to have a growing faith, it must be rooted in fear. And yes, that is the fear of the Lord. Now, Boogie recently shared these truths in a challenge, and I was blessed by those by hearing him. And we’ll just go ahead and let him share these verses and truths with you today.

Boogie: well yes last week I was preaching in a chapel here at the school and Proverbs really is ideal for preaching to teens and the target of this book is to a younger generation I think we counted and there’s 23 references to my son and then if you add my child or it gets even higher so Proverbs really is targeted for a younger audience. And verse 2 of Proverbs chapter 1, it kind of gives a little bit of the purpose to know wisdom and instruction. And God wants us to be able to increase in wisdom. He wants us to be able to make wise choices, to have a blessed life. And verse 7 is the foundation. Okay, if you want to have this blessed life to be filled with wisdom, verse 7, the fear of the Lord is just the beginning. It’s the beginning of knowledge. And this fear isn’t, you know, the fear that runs underneath the bed during a thunderstorm.

No, this fear is, it’s a fear of reverence, a fear of awe and adoration. And verse 7 saying, hey, if you want to be able to have this blessed life, you’re going to have to have the right kind of relationship with God that fears him, that has an adoration, a sense of awe of him. And then verses 8 and 9 gives one of the first markers of someone that does truly fear the Lord. If a person fears the Lord, then verse 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. Someone who does truly fear God will be marked by a right relationship with their parents. And then verse 9, the results of someone that does truly follow the instruction of their father, someone that doesn’t forsake the law of thy mother. Verse 9, it says, For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck.

Okay, that’s basically saying, hey, if you have a right relationship with your parents, it’s like you’re wearing ornaments. It’s jewelry. You look attractive. You look beautiful. And that’s the idea of the ornaments of grace into thy head, chains about thy neck. There’s positions of authority given you.

And so there’s so many benefits just even of looking attractive, looking beautiful, someone that has a right relationship with their parents. and uh you know that’s that’s not hard to comprehend you know think of maybe you’ve been at a grocery store or something and you see a little kid having a meltdown because their parents said no and uh they’re screaming having a temper tantrum oh I want this and it’s like oh that doesn’t look good no like that’s that’s repulsive but when you look at someone and not only are they They’re not just going along with what their parents say, but they’re honoring. They’re hearing and following. Now that, that’s beautiful. That’s attractive. And someone that is going to get to that point of having that right relationship with their parents, it has to first of all be rooted in the fear of the Lord.

And that’s really what the point of this podcast is. How do we have a growing faith? Well, there is a right kind of fear. Everyone in this world that this world is promoting is like, oh, fear no one, be yourself, be independent, believe in yourself. Well, no, we actually do need to fear something. Don’t be so confident in yourself. No, have a fear of God and let it be seen by how you respond to the people he’s placed in your life, your parents. That’s the best way to demonstrate your fear, your respect, your honor of God, the way you interact and respond to your parents. And just kind of a word of testimony from Anna Faith and I and our relationship for me as a guy, like any step of asking a girl to marry you is going to be a step of faith because it’s like, okay, is this girl truly going to follow me?

And for me, there was no question in my mind that Anna Faith was going to respect and follow me because Anna Faith really had 23 years of a track record of not just going along with what her dad said, but really pursuing her dad’s heart and seeing his vision and furthering it. And I would just say to you, maybe this is just a practical takeaway for today. The best thing, if you’re not married, the best thing you can do for your future husband, the best thing you can do for him today is by following your dad. Because a husband that truly walks with the Lord, they’re going to want to see, okay, how does this girl relate to her dad? Does she truly respect and follow?

And I would just encourage any of you ladies, younger girls praying about marriage, the best thing you can do today is demonstrate the fear of the Lord by responding rightly to your father, to your mother. hear the instruction of thy father, forsake not the law of thy mother. And that’s for guys too, for any young adult, teenager. And so the challenge for today, let your fear of the Lord be seen in how you respond to your parents today. Let your faith in the Lord grow. And that faith is demonstrated in saying, God, I’m willing to trust you to work through the parents you’ve placed in my life. I’m going to hear them. I’m not going to forsake them. And I’m going to follow them as I follow you because I have a right fear of you.

Anna Faith Fuller: Well, thank you so much for that challenge. And we’ve been studying the book of Proverbs in our Sunday school time. And one of the themes that we keep coming back to is that Proverbs was written to young people and just realizing that as we as young people think sometimes that we’ve got it all figured out and just realizing that we are so in need of God’s word, of knowledge, of wisdom, truly of living our lives in the fear of the Lord and thinking of the way that God’s chosen to place us all in this world is in the family and realizing that God has given each of us handpicked fathers and mothers, parents that he has given us and we are to follow them and we are to hear their instruction and not forsake their wisdom that they’re trying to impart to us.

And so thank you so much for just that specific way that we can walk in the fear of the Lord today by hearing and not despising and honoring our parents and the truth that they’re trying to impart to us and even the direction that they are encouraging us to go in and to follow the Lord. So I’d encourage you in whatever way that God’s working in your heart right now, that you would not just walk away from that, but you would take action and truly walk by faith in that matter. And remember as we go about our days that faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.