The book of Proverbs is rich with verses which impress us that to live a normal human life, we must be those who fear Jehovah (1:7,29;2:5,3:7,8:13;9:10). To fear God is not only to worship Him, but to have the utmost reverence and regard towards Him. In addition, to fear Jehovah is not merely to refrain from sinfulness or worldliness, but it is to fear that our living and activities are out of ourselves and not out of the Lord.

The Bible tells us clearly that cursed is the man who trusts man, but blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah (Jer.17:5,7). Then in Matthew 16:24, the Lord instructs us to deny ourselves. This is to reject our soul-life, our natural life, as the source of our living. Since the fall, man has been inclined towards independence from God. Human history, including our personal history, is a negative testimony of this. But now, the Lord desires to recover us back to how it was before the fall: a life of complete dependence on Him. And if we are filled with the proper fear of Jehovah, we will also desire to have Him as the unique source of all our living.