She Warned Us

"Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefor they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices." Proverbs 1:29-31

"I told you so!" Have you ever used those words, or a paraphrase of them? If you haven't, I'm sure that you've heard them. As a teacher, I let me students sit on chairs, stability balls, cushions, etc. so they are comfortable and ready to learn. But I warn them of the ways not to sit on them. Don't tilt back on two legs of the chair, or forward. Don't try to sit crossed leg on the ball. Don't sit for too long with your legs bent under you on the cushion. Why do I tell them these things? Because every year someone falls. I have the student will tilted forward on two legs of the chair an end up with his chin hitting the desk when the legs didn't hold him. I've had the stability ball daredevils who try contortionists positions on the ball, just to have it roll out from under them. There is always at least one, who sat too long with their legs bent who complains of the pain of trying to get the blood flowing and the creaks out of their legs. Listen, I've had kids fall out of the chairs for no apparent reasons. It seemed that gravity just gave them an extra pull to make everyone first react with shock and then to give us a good laugh. Almost all of these instances end with something like, "you should have believed me when I told you that would happen."

Wisdom has promised a, "I told you so!" to those who refuse to listen. In the verses preceding these that calamity will fall on them and they will call for her but won't find her. Remember, she hasn't quietly stood off to the side and said, "now, I don't think that is a good idea." No, she calls out in the street and tells anyone who has the fear of the Lord, to listen, turn from their ways, and they will have knowledge and become wise.

At some point, I had to just watch the kid sit up on his toes with the chair tilted on two, or even one leg, and let him or her fall. Why? Not because I am mean or get any thrill from watching them cause themselves injury, but rather because some won't learn not to until they do and feel the consequences of trying to defy gravity. We can't continue to try to defy Wisdom and expect no consequences. She has called out, warned them to listen, but at some point people need to eat the fruit of doing things their own way.

The decision for us is simple, but not easy. It's simple because Wisdom is telling us what is good and right. All we have to do is listen. It is not easy, because hers is not the only voice we hear. There is our own voices of pride and doubt that we listen to. There is the voice of others who think they are wise, or know they are foolish and don't care. We hear them too. Satan would like nothing better than for us to listen to him and his lies. He would much rather see us left to our own devices. It's not easy to listen and follow the words of Wisdom, because of the other voices we hear. My prayer is that God will help me to know His voice, whether it's the still small voice or the one calling in the streets. Help me to distinguish between the thoughts of what I want and what He is directing me to do. Help me to ignore the fear. Help me stop second, and third, and sometimes more, guessing what I heard that came from Wisdom. Let me choose to fear the Lord, and listen and have His spirit poured out to me.

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.

Proverbs 1:2

"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. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;  fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Proverbs 1:2-7

Proverbs 1:2-6 is sort of like the blurb on the back of a book. I pick up a book and turn it over to find out what it's about. Instead of the back of a book this is how the book of Proverbs starts. I don't know about anyone else, but if I read this on the back of a book I would buy it!

"To know wisdom and instruction" This means to discern what is wisdom and admonition or discipline. Okay, not really liking admonition or discipline. The book of Proverbs explains that they go hand-in-hand with wisdom though. I mess up as much as anyone else and I need to be admonished. I need to discern to know what is true admonishment and discipline and what isn't. Satan would rather beat me up and make me feel shame and failure. It is important for me to discern what is real admonishment and what isn't.

"To understand words of insight" These words of insight are sayings. To understand them means to be acquainted with them. That means to have personal knowledge of them. As a teacher, I teach my students many examples of figurative language. The idioms or adages or metaphors that they understand best are the ones that they have used themselves. We need to become as familiar with the sayings of Proverbs.

Wow, this is just verse two. If the reason for the book ended at verse two I would still want to read it. I would like to know what is real wisdom and discipline, and I want to become so familiar with wisdom saying that my life would be full of wisdom. The next post will continue by examining verse three.

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Open My Eyes to Wisdom

This is from December 18, 2012.

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” Isaiah 5:21

“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.” Proverbs 3:7

The last few days I have experienced people voicing reason that seemed to defy rational thought as well as some voices defying the Word of God. Other people nod their heads and agree with them, making them feel that their words are even more right than they even thought before they said them. The thought of “they are wise in their own eyes” kept coming to me. Now, I included two verses related to this but the Word, especially Proverbs, is full of verses just like this.

Last night part of my prayer time included asking God that if I fall into that category that He would reveal it to me. I prayed that my eyes would be open to the Truth. That I would focus on Him and His Word and not my own foolish ideas or thoughts.

We all have times when we are the foolish ones. If we didn’t then we would be perfect and already attained being completely like Christ. We are still very much a work in progress.

The best part is that He has told us how to avoid being fools. We need to fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This fear is not about being terrified of God. It is about reverence for the Lord. If we have reverence for Him then we will look to Him, listen to Him, and honor Him by obeying Him. If we do that we can turn from evil as well.

This is, honestly, easier said than done. We spend a whole lot of time with our own thoughts and we listen to them. We have to allow the Holy Spirit free reign to convict us of our thoughts and words that are wise in our own eyes. The good news is that He will and we can people who speak the Wisdom of the Lord.