Emerge victorious

Proverbs 2:7-8
He holds victory in store for the upright,
He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
For he guards the course of the just
And protects the way of his faithful ones.

One of the things I love about the Bible is the connections you can make. In the story of Job, God allowed Satan to take away his family, friends, money, and his home, yet through it all, Job never turned his back on God. Through everything God protected Job, and when it was all over, Job got back all he lost with interest.

In our journey through life, there will be many traps and pitfalls, set by Satan to tempt us away from God. If we listen, and trust wisdom, without turning our backs on him, he will shield us from Satan’s attacks. On that note, let me warn you that Satan is an opportunist. He knows our weaknesses and will use any advantage to wear down our defenses, but Christ promised “victory for the upright,” “to shield those whose walk is blameless,” “to guard the course of the just,” “and protect the way of his faithful ones.”

Our faith is going to be tested our entire lives, and the greater our faith, the harder the trials. Satan will throw every temptation at us to stray, based on our weakness. With wisdom, and discipline, we can overcome those temptations. If you think it’s easy, it’s not. Even Solomon had a weakness with women. He fell at times, but the one thing that remained was his determination to follow wisdom and God forgave him and continued to protect him.

We will give in to temptation from time to time, but God is always willing to show mercy and forgive us as long as we don’t turn our backs on him. He will continue to protect us and lead us to victory.

Challenge: Even if you stumble, don’t allow Satan to turn you away from God and his wisdom. Emerge from this life victorious in Christ.

Enjoy,
Allen

Selective hearing

Proverbs 2:1-5
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you; turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding; and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding; and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

My wife is always telling me that I don’t listen to her. This happens mostly when I forget something at the store, or I forget to take out the trash, and quite honestly, I don’t always hear her. If you put me around a lake with my camera, I’ve been known to hear a half-inch frog jumping on an oak leaf, from 20 feet away. The word for this is selective hearing.

We are not born with selective hearing; it comes on gradually. When our body and mind are subjected to the same things all the time, they become immune to their effects, and that includes the senses. When we get to a point of complacency, we have to retrain our minds to look and listen for the things we take for granted.

One of the things people take for granted is wisdom. It’s not always easy to hear wisdom because we grew up with it always present. Proverbs 2:1-5 says we can “understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” If we accept his words, and store up his commands within us, but before we can do that we have to hear what he has to say. We have to retrain our minds to hear what wisdom is saying and we can only do that by eagerly searching for it. We need to replace the complacency with a firm desire to gain knowledge. As verse 4 says, “look for it as silver, and search for it as for hidden treasure,”

Once we start to hear wisdom, we can take its teachings into our hearts.

Challenge: Retrain your heart and mind to listen for wisdom. You might be surprised what you might learn.

Enjoy,
Allen

consequences of rejecting wisdom

Proverbs 1:22-33
22 "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.
24 But since you rejected me when I called
and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,
25 since you ignored all my advice
and would not accept my rebuke,
26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you-
27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.
28 "Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me.
29 Since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the LORD,
30 since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,
31 they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm."

When I read these verses, I wondered why people reject wisdom. After reading this chapter, I realized that the other word for wisdom is conscience. Therefore, every time we hear our conscience trying to stop us before we fall, it is really the call of wisdom. Therefore, the reasons I came up with are the way we respond to our conscience.

One of the reasons people use to reject wisdom is that wisdom tells us what we don’t want to hear. When we are in high school, and get invited to a party with drinking, and drugs, wisdom reminds us of the consequences of drinking, and drugs, but we tell ourselves, it’s an opportunity to socialize, and fit in with our friends. Many of us will turn it down, but others tell themselves they can handle it, and there’s no reason to worry.

Another reason wisdom is rejected is that people don’t trust easy answers. The reason so many people procrastinate is the fear that something will be harder than it really is. Wisdom tells us to do something now, and it isn’t as hard as we imagine. What we do is put it off until the problem gets worse, and the consequence is that it will take more time, and more money to fix.

We are afraid that if we listen to wisdom, and do things correctly before the deadline, people will start to expect it all the time. When some people go to work, they don’t perform to their full potential because if the boss expects it all the time and we fail at any point, we think the boss will yell, or even fire us. This fear is usually unfounded, and when they apply themselves to their work, they find they can handle their job. The consequence of not listening to wisdom is smaller raises, no promotions, and getting fired in some cases.

The biggest reason people reject wisdom is that wisdom makes us responsible for our own actions. Before the sixties, most people felt responsible for what they did, but since then, society placed the responsibility on our parents, or our environment, or the school system, but very rarely on ourselves. In doing so, society has created a generation of kids who don’t feel they have to think for themselves. They feel the government should take care of them, and that wisdom is outdated. The consequence of this is that people have become slaves to society, and its rules.

By rejecting wisdom, people may think their getting something better, and in the short term it sounds like a fun life, but continuing to ignore wisdom’s call will have some long term consequences that may be hard to break free.

Challenge: If you hear wisdom warning you not to do something, listen to it, and think about the consequences if you don’t.

Enjoy,
Allen

Wisdom is a public speaker

Proverbs 1:20, 21
Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

On the first day of school, a high school speech teacher stood up behind his podium, cleared his throat, and in a clear loud voice he startled the students with, “You can gave the most eloquent, purposeful, speech in the privacy of your living room, but who’s going to hear the message.” All forms of communication are to express an idea, belief, or purpose to others. Why would you try to teach yourself something you already believe? There was a lot of wisdom in the teacher’s words.

Many people think that wisdom is elusive. They think they have to travel around the world to temples, mountains where old men live, and even schools, to seek some hidden wisdom on the meaning of life. There is an old saying, “Some day my ship will come in, and with my luck I’ll be at the airport.” The reason there are men spending years on mountains, seeking wisdom, is that they rejected it when it was screaming at them from public markets, and street corners.

Wisdom is not silent, or in some far off land, it’s right in front of us trying to get our attention. It screams, it yells, it holds up its hand in front of us saying, “Ooh, ooh, mister Kotter, pick me.” Wisdom makes it easy to hear what it wants to say, we just have to accept its message.

Challenge: Learn to listen to the message of wisdom, and when you hear its call, don’t look for a second opinion.

Enjoy,
Allen

The beginning of knowledge

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

When I first heard this verse, I didn’t know the word fear has three distinct meanings. I would always imagine a person cowering before God, or he would face death by lightning bolt. Of course, I no longer have that vision. I now see God as a loving creator who sent a part of himself to suffer and die on the cross so that we can have life.

If you’re still confused on the distinction, here’s a brief description of each. One kind is an emotional response to a real or implied threat. This fear may not paralyze you, but it can stop you from accomplishing something. You could have a fear of going outside because you think pollution will kill you.

The second type is a fear induced by something or someone. This is where you get your phobias. Mine was always spiders. This type of fear will have a paralyzing effect on you if you allow it to persist.

Both of these are negative fears that can rip our emotional core to shreds. The good news is they can be pulled out of, by research, and facing them. That is what I did to get over my fear of spiders. I turned it into a research project, and I took close-up photos of them. Over time, I started respecting them and appreciating what they do for the world.

The last type of fear means awe, reverence, and veneration. This type of fear always has a positive outcome. Because of this fear, you are motivated to learn everything you can about God, and understand what he wants for your life. You are never paralyzed, and your self-esteem is strengthened.

The more you learn about God, the more you realize that he will always be with you, and you don’t have to cower before him. God wants you to revere him, and love him. He doesn’t want you dread him, or live in terror.

The way I learned to see it; reverence leads to learning (instruction); learning leads to knowledge; knowledge leads to discipline; and discipline leads to wisdom; and wisdom leads to God.

Foolish people always hate discipline. They feel like education is a joke, and that people who try to teach them are intruding on their good time. They always think about the short term. Live in the moment, never plan for the future, education does nothing for them.

The worst part of this philosophy is that they will search for meaning in their lives, but they’ll never find it. Their entire life becomes a seduction to emptiness. Their lives seem exciting, and full of intrigue, but that kind of life will eventually fade, and they will be left with nothing to show for it.

If you want to avoid a meaningless life, arm yourself with wisdom, discipline, and knowledge. This way leads to God, and a real life.

Challenge: Start a discipleship journal. It will help you keep track of what you learn, and your spiritual growth.

Enjoy,
Allen