The Beginning of Wisdom

I have taken a bit of a journey over the last 10 or so months, of going straight through books of the Bible and posting a paragraph or so at a time on Facebook. It was election time, and my news feed was full of negative posts, comments, videos, and memes, and it was getting to a point of not wanting to even go on there. Then, I felt the Lord speak into my heart and tell me to post His Word. I started in Romans and finished the New Testament. I made only two or three comments throughout. It wasn't to be about me and my thoughts, but just His Word speaking. Many people like the posts or make comments, but even more tell me in person "thank you" for posting Scripture each day. So I continue to do that. Right now it's about halfway through John. Did you know that each of the books of the Gospel were written to different audiences? Well, John was written to those who were not part of the Jewish faith, ones who knew little or anything of the One True God. That's why I chose that Gospel to share first, because many of my Facebook friends are not believers. All this to say, that I have badly neglected blogging during this time. I knew that I would, because I felt then and now, that that needed to be my focus. Yet, I have come to a place where I need to be refreshed and even though I read and post Scripture daily, I need some dig into time. I need some wisdom, so I thought that I would do my devotions right here through the book of Proverbs. I hope that whoever reads these devotions gains the wisdom that you search for too.

"To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth-Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles." Proverbs 1:2-6

How many nights have I laid awake worrying over a decision or regretting a choice? I can't even begin to count! In those moments, of tossing and turning, I feel like the least wise person who has ever lived. I can't get passed the worry of making the wrong decision or the worry of the results of making poor decisions. The cats hate me because I'm disturbing their sleep with my kicking the covers off and pulling them back on; my turning from one side to the others; and my sighs and groans. Usually they go right back to sleep while I lay there wide awake. I am sure that I am not the only one.

At some point during my worrying gymnastics routine, a name pops into my head. Jesus. It's like a light bulb goes off, again, that His name can calm me and help me to listen to Wisdom. My mind starts to rest, although there is usually a kick start or two of over thinking before I truly let His name flow over my worry and regret. In those moments, I often think, "I need more time with You. I need more time in Your Word." I don't think those because I'll have no decisions that may cause me to worry. Rather, I think it because I know that when I do I'll remember more quickly that He is with me, even when I make a bad choice.

The introduction to the book of Proverbs sums it all up. 31 chapters were written to help the reader understand words of insight; to receive instructions, to hear and increase in learning; to obtain guidance; and to understand the words of the wise. There doesn't feel like there are a lot of Solomons anymore,  but we don't need them. They are nice to have around, someone to ask advice from or just to listen to like the crowds listened to Jesus. We don't need them because when we accepted Christ, we got the direct connect to Wisdom, the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He speaks directly into our hearts and minds and other times He uses Scripture to penetrate into us. Sometimes He uses the few Solomons to speak to us the Truth of Wisdom. Pastors and preachers and priests are great, but they aren't all Solomons. If that was true than Solomon wouldn't have been needed at all, as the Jews had plenty of priests. Seek out those who speak Wisdom and if you find no person, no worry, because the Holy Spirit was sent to bring us comfort and wisdom.

I look forward to journeying through the book of Proverbs and hope to become wiser as I do so.

Shaking

"And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." Acts 4:31

I am fascinated by the people of the Early Church. Some of them actually knew Jesus when He was on Earth. Some died for being a follower. One notable one even persecuted them before becoming one of them. They shared with each other; the poo; and the orphans and widows. Although I am sure their faith was as shaky as any of us today, they had so much faith that when they prayed things shook.

This verse doesn't even say that they were afraid when the shaking happened. It says that were filled with the Holy Spirit and not just spoke the word of God with boldness, but continued to speak with boldness. These people in the face of ridicule and even persecution spoke the word of God boldly.

If you look earlier in the chapter you can see that Peter and John were in trouble with the priests had told them to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. When they were let go they went straight to their people and told them what happened. Then lifted up their voices to God and told Him about all who were against Him and them. They didn't ask Him to take away the threats against them. Nope they asked Him to help them speak more boldly.

I know in my life that when things are shaking around me or when others are attacking me I want it to go away. How many times have I thought, "if that person would just go away." Instead I need to pray that God would help me to speak boldly, to live boldly. In a world that seems to be more and more taken in by the deception of satan, and one in which Christians put down and ridicule other Christians, there needs to be a people who will speak boldly and pray that God helps them continue to speak boldly.

Do you want to be one of them?

Holy Spirit Words

This is from November 5, 2012.

"Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit." Mark 13:11

Today I headed for the track outside of school to start walking. Usually when I go out to walk I am with my walking peeps, but today I was the first one out there. I started walking and praying about what I should write about. I prayed for just the right words. I don’t want to just write something just for the sake of writing. I know that I probably won’t write something everyday, so when nothing came to mind I figured today was a pass. Then I got home and started reading Facebook and the verse above jumped out at me. How’s that for God answering prays!

Sometimes when we are facing an unfamiliar or uncomfortable situation we plan out what we are going to say. We rehearse what we will say, sometimes having way more bravado then we really have. We even practice what the other person will say.

It doesn’t even have to be a bad situation that we plan for. Sometimes we will speak to others and are nervous about it. We plan for those situations. We think it is okay since these are good situations. We think it is okay since there is nothing wrong with being prepared, right? But sometimes there is something wrong with it.

God doesn’t want us to do that. He doesn’t want us to rehearse or prepare for the difficult conversations or even the positive ones. He wants to give us just the right words at just the right time. The Holy Spirit wants us to exercise our faith in Him and let Him give us the right words at the right time. We need to be obedient to Him and stop trying to think and plan it out, and just trust that His words are the right ones.

Today, He reminded me that these devotions aren’t about my thoughts or ideas or words, there about His!