Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and
shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. ~Proverbs
3:7-8
Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The
eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry. The
face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them
from the land. ~Psalm 34:14-16
There really doesn’t seem to be much new here, but it
is a great review of what we have learned already. As you will experience,
there is a lot of repetition in the wisdom literature, but that is a good thing
because much repetition allows us a chance to make what we are learning becomes
more deeply embedded in our new way of thinking.
To tell the truth, how many of us have learned
something well with just hearing it once? I remember hearing Pastor Will Markham,
the senior pastor at Revival Center in Cadillac, just talking about bulletin
announcements say, “In communicating to a group of people, when you think
you’ve covered the ground, you’ve barely scratched the surface.” So, before
moving on, let’s use these verses to review what we have covered. If we end up
reviewing again on future dates, that’s okay, because Solomon probably believed
that we too needed the reminder.
“Do not be wise in our own eyes.” Why? Because we
can’t necessarily be trusted.
“Fear the Lord.” Why? Because it is the beginning of
wisdom, and proper fear of God will help us “shun evil.”
“This will bring health to your body and nourishment
to your bones.” Besides, it goes better for us when we do. Why? Because wisdom
helps us know how to live better, resist temptation better, and handle conflict
better.
We are never out of His sight. He is always near to
help us when we ask. Our responsibility is to ask Him first, not try our own
way and seek Him as a last resort. Remember, stop, look and listen to what He
is telling you. His eyes are always on you. He is the ultimate accountability
partner. Does knowing this help us resist doing what we should not do? He hopes
so.
Sometimes the wisdom verses are just so obvious. They almost
go without saying. Everybody knows you should shun evil, right? It’s just
common sense. But we all have heard that common sense really isn’t so common.
Another reason God states the obvious is because we
really are that dull sometimes! Or, we think we are so clever to find the loopholes
in God’s commands. Well, God closed ALL the loopholes. We will have no excuse.
We will not be able to say to God that he didn’t tell us everything we needed to
know. God very thoroughly leaves no stone unturned. No apt word is left unspoken
in his perfect Book.
Prayer:
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