Hows-Your-Reception - #274

Just like yesterday’s meal does not satisfy today’s hunger, yesterday’s time in Scripture cannot replace today’s need to hear from Him. 

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No one accidentally receives a deep understanding of the fear of the Lord. No one stumbles into a rich relationship with God while just coasting along. Spiritual growth is intentional. Wisdom is pursued. Reverence is cultivated. In Proverbs 2, God lays out something important for us. He shows us six choices that lead to understanding the fear of the Lord and truly knowing Him.

Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast—a weekly Bible study packed with practical truth from God’s Word to help you pursue lasting purity, spiritual integrity, and genuine freedom in Christ. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #274 – join me as we continue our series on Fearing God. This week’s episode is entitled “How’s Your Reception?” 

 In Proverbs 2:1-5 Solomon writes, “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” (ESV)

In this passage, God inspires Solomon to lay out something important for us. He shows us six choices that lead to understanding the fear of the Lord and truly knowing Him. I call them “six choices” because of a small but powerful word that keeps showing up in the passage: “if.”

The word “if” is either directly stated or clearly implied six different times: “If you receive my words…” (v.1a) … “[If you] treasure up my commands with you…” (v.1b) … “[If you make] your ear attentive to wisdom…” (v.2a) … “[If you incline] your heart to understanding…” (v.2b) … “If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding…” (v.3)  … and “If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures…” (v.4)

That little word “if” tells us something right away: the outcome is not automatic. This is not a passive process that just happens because you grew up in church or because you own a Bible. It involves choice, and every choice carries a consequence. When you choose the action, you are also choosing the outcome that comes with it.

That outcome is described in verse 5: “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” God is saying, “If you do these six things, then this is what will follow.” There is a promise attached. Six deliberate choices lead to one guaranteed outcome: you will understand the fear of the Lord and truly know God.

This passage is not offering casual suggestions. These are not spiritual hobbies to dabble in when you have spare time. These are an invitation to serious, intentional engagement with the Word of God and the God of the Word.

No one accidentally receives a deep understanding of the fear of the Lord. No one stumbles into a rich relationship with God while just coasting along. Spiritual growth is intentional. Wisdom is pursued. Reverence is cultivated.

It is worth pausing for a moment here and  asking ourselves a few honest questions.

Am I receiving God’s Word, or just hearing it? These are not the same thing. Receiving means welcoming it, accepting its authority, and letting it shape you—even when it corrects you.

Am I treasuring Scripture? That word implies value. You protect what you treasure. You return to it. You think about it. If someone spent twenty-four hours with you, would they conclude that God’s Word is something you truly treasure?

Am I making my ear attentive to what God says?  In a world full of distractions, attention is a choice. You do not gradually slide into attentiveness; you train yourself to focus.

Am I inclining my heart toward understanding it? This goes deeper than curiosity, into desire. You are declaring, “I really want to grow. I want to understand what God is saying.”

Am I calling out to God for insight? This is prayer. Pride stays silent, but humility cries out, “God, help me understand.”

Am I seeking God’s wisdom like silver and searching for it like a hidden treasure? Think about how determined someone becomes when physical treasure is involved. The intensity Proverbs 2 describes is not casual interest but determined pursuit.

God attaches a powerful promise to these actions: when you faithfully and consistently make these six choices, THEN you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

This passage invites us to examine our approach. So, over the next few episodes we are going to invest time looking closer at each of these choices beginning with Choice #1: Receive God’s Word

When Solomon says in Proverbs 2:1, “If you receive my words,” he does not mean simply hearing Scripture read or sitting in a room where the Bible is being discussed. He is describing something much more personal. To receive God’s Word means you welcome it into your heart and life. You embrace it and internalize it, letting it shape how you think and make decisions. You accept it as truth.

The Bereans in Acts 17:11 are a great example of this. Scripture says they “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (NIV’84). They did not just sit politely while Paul spoke and then move on with their day. They welcomed the message eagerly, and then they went back to the Scriptures themselves daily to think it through, test it, and truly understand it.

That is exactly the kind of response Proverbs 2:1 is pointing to. Receiving God’s Word means you care enough to engage with it. You do not just hear it; you examine it. You do not just read it; you wrestle with it. You do not just admire it; you apply it to your life.

There is another important detail here that is easy to overlook. The verb “receive” is written in the present tense, which carries the idea of ongoing action. This is not describing something that happens once and then you are done with it. It is something that continues. Receiving God’s words is a habit; a pattern; a way of life.

This challenges the idea that occasional exposure to Scripture is enough. Listening to a sermon on Sunday is good. Reading a short devotional a few times a week is good, but Solomon describes goes deeper. He is pointing to a life that keeps receiving, keeps welcoming, keeps pursuing what God is saying.

Daily engagement with Scripture generates a growing relationship with the Author. It is one of the ways we stay attentive to God’s voice. His truth keeps shaping our thinking, correcting our assumptions, and guiding the decisions we make. Over time, that consistent exposure is what moves Scripture from being just information on a page to producing transformation of the heart.

The fear of the Lord is what makes this kind of ongoing receiving possible. If we do not truly revere God, we will not consistently listen to Him. Without humility, it is easy to think we already know enough. Then Scripture becomes optional, something we turn to when it is convenient rather than something we depend on.

However, when you genuinely fear the Lord—when you stand in awe of His wisdom and authority—you approach His Word differently. You take His voice seriously. Instead of saying, “I’ve heard that before,” your heart says, “I still need to hear from Him.” That sense of reverent dependence keeps you teachable.

The fear of the Lord and daily reading of Scripture go hand in hand. Reverence becomes a trust that draws you back to God’s Word again and again. You keep returning because you believe His wisdom is better. His perspective is higher. His correction is good.

Practically speaking, that means making real space for Scripture in your life, not just squeezing it into whatever leftover minutes happen to be available. You need to slow down enough to actually understand what you are reading. Ask questions. Pray through what you see. Come to the Bible not just to confirm what you already think, but to let God shape how you will think.

Carry Scripture with you throughout the day. Turn it over in your mind. Let it challenge your reactions and influence your decisions. Stay soft and open, even when— especially when— a passage confronts something in you.

This ongoing reception of God’s Word becomes an act of worship. Every time you open the Bible with humility and expectation, you are essentially saying, “God, Your voice has authority in my life. Teach me. Correct me. Lead me.” This posture flows directly out of the fear of the Lord. A life that keeps receiving God’s Word, day after day, is a clear sign that a person truly reveres Him.

Over the years of ministry one major theme I constantly and consistently drive home is the vital importance of reading the Bible DAILY. Why? Jesus gives us the answer in Matthew 4:4. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (ESV).

What makes that statement even more powerful is the moment in which Jesus says it. He has been fasting for forty days. He is physically exhausted and incredibly hungry. If anyone has a legitimate reason to focus on physical food, it is Him. Yet, in that moment, Jesus points beyond bread and says something striking … real life is not sustained by food alone but by the Word of God.

That should completely reshape the way you think about reading the Bible each day. Bread is not a luxury; it is basic nourishment. You do not eat one meal and assume you will be good for the rest of the week. Hunger comes back every day, and it needs to be satisfied every day. Jesus is saying that God’s Word works the same way for your soul. You were designed to depend on it regularly. When you go without it, you may still function on the outside, but on the inside you slowly begin to weaken.

Time in Scripture creates daily dependence. Every time you read the Bible, you are quietly acknowledging  “God, I need Your truth today. I need Your wisdom to guide me.” Without that regular input from God’s Word, your thinking is shaped more by culture, emotions, fears, or circumstances than by what God actually says.

Jesus also says we live by “every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That phrase reminds us that God’s Word is not stale or outdated; it is living. It speaks into our present lives. When we open Scripture each day, we are putting ourselves in a position to hear what God is saying into our current situations. Just like yesterday’s meal does not satisfy today’s hunger, yesterday’s time in Scripture cannot replace today’s need to hear from Him.

There is also something more happening here. In that moment of temptation, Jesus chooses to trust God’s Word rather than acting on His own instincts or desires. He shows us that relying on God’s Word is actually an act of worship. When we choose to invest time in Scripture—even when we are busy, tired, or distracted—we are saying, “God, Your voice matters more than everything competing for my attention.”

At the end of the day, Matthew 4:4 reminds us that engaging with Scripture daily is not just a spiritual discipline—it is life itself. God’s Word feeds our faith, steadies our thinking, strengthens our obedience, and reminds us of who we are in Him. When we neglect it, we are not just skipping a habit. We are slowly starving our souls.

Alright, we’re going to hit the pause button here until next week’s episode where we will continue our understanding of what it means to fear God.

In the meantime, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes! So, until next time this is Steve Etner – author, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry – reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.