Better to be a nobody and have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have
no food. ~Proverbs 12:9
Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of only vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred. ~Proverbs 15:16:17
Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife. ~Proverbs 17:1
Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. ~Proverbs 16:8
Better a poor person whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse. ~Proverbs 19:1 & 28:6
What a person desires is unfailing love. Better to be poor than a liar. ~Proverbs 19:22
Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil chasing after the wind. ~Ecclesiastes 4:6
Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning. ~Ecclesiastes 4:13
Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked, for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. ~Psalm 37:16
Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. ~Psalm 63:3
Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. ~Psalm 84:10
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. ~Psalm 11
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. ~1 Samuel 15:22
Well that seems to cover about everything! Are there any of these you would disagree with? Are there any of these that you have learned from personal experience are definitely true? It’s interesting to me that our society is so much based on making everything bigger, faster, cheaper and “better.” We want things to be better. We want life to be better. That’s what drives our economy.
Here is a whole list of what is truly better, and it’s all free! Much of it, however, isn’t what the world means when it says better. For example, the world thinks it’s better to be rich, no matter what. “It’s a dog eat dog world.” But God says it’s better to be righteous and good, even if you’re still poor. Another example, the world says ambition is good and earns you a lot of wealth which is also good. But God says, “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil chasing after the wind.” Peace and tranquility in your heart is healthier than anxiety while you watch your 401k shrink in value.
For Christians in particular, speaking about these things in a world that disagrees with God’s thinking can be dangerous. But the psalmist says, “Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You.” That’s not just an expression of gratitude for God’s love. It turns out to be motivational to pursue our mission of sharing the gospel too.
It’s interesting to think on this in the middle of our current situation. We have been forced to stop and think about what’s best. For example, better to love the vulnerable by staying inside and decrease the chances of spreading infection than to insist on our “right to assemble” and put others in harm’s way.
Better to use the time to think about what is really best and be content with that, than to pine away for what we can’t have or do right now. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:6 that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” Why? Because we have stopped straining to keep up with whatever we were chasing after.
In these special days, we now have the time to pause and consider what truly is better for us, for you. We could consider this time as a gift to reevaluate our circumstances. We can ask, “Lord, what is truly better for me?”
Each of us have different challenges, so writing a prescriptive devotional that would cover all the bases could get pretty long. However, since I’ve already said that I believe that most of you are Fourth Soil people already, you probably already have an established time each day that you spend with the Lord. Could I encourage you to take this list of Proverbs with you into that time, read each verse slowly and ask the Lord to show you if there is anything that you need to do differently to learn His “Better,” for you.
In Christ, we no longer think as the world thinks. Almost everything listed here is upside down to the world’s way of thinking. We have come out of the world, but some of our thinking could still be fuzzy in some area that is a real personal struggle for you. I pray that the Lord will bless you in this exercise. Now, while you have more time, it just may be a good time to practice making some changes.
This leads me to compose my own proverb. Better a quarantine and more time with God than freedom and business and no time for God. What proverb could you write? Feel free to share in a reply for all of us to be blessed.
Prayer: Thank You Lord, for more time to reflect upon what is truly good. Thank You Lord for more time to do what is most important, like love my family. Thank You for guiding my thinking by Your Holy Wisdom for I must confess my own heart and mind would tend to go the opposite direction from what is best for me. In Jesus' name, amen.
Song: Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart
Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of only vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred. ~Proverbs 15:16:17
Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife. ~Proverbs 17:1
Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. ~Proverbs 16:8
Better a poor person whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse. ~Proverbs 19:1 & 28:6
What a person desires is unfailing love. Better to be poor than a liar. ~Proverbs 19:22
Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil chasing after the wind. ~Ecclesiastes 4:6
Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning. ~Ecclesiastes 4:13
Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked, for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. ~Psalm 37:16
Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. ~Psalm 63:3
Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. ~Psalm 84:10
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. ~Psalm 11
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. ~1 Samuel 15:22
Well that seems to cover about everything! Are there any of these you would disagree with? Are there any of these that you have learned from personal experience are definitely true? It’s interesting to me that our society is so much based on making everything bigger, faster, cheaper and “better.” We want things to be better. We want life to be better. That’s what drives our economy.
Here is a whole list of what is truly better, and it’s all free! Much of it, however, isn’t what the world means when it says better. For example, the world thinks it’s better to be rich, no matter what. “It’s a dog eat dog world.” But God says it’s better to be righteous and good, even if you’re still poor. Another example, the world says ambition is good and earns you a lot of wealth which is also good. But God says, “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil chasing after the wind.” Peace and tranquility in your heart is healthier than anxiety while you watch your 401k shrink in value.
For Christians in particular, speaking about these things in a world that disagrees with God’s thinking can be dangerous. But the psalmist says, “Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You.” That’s not just an expression of gratitude for God’s love. It turns out to be motivational to pursue our mission of sharing the gospel too.
It’s interesting to think on this in the middle of our current situation. We have been forced to stop and think about what’s best. For example, better to love the vulnerable by staying inside and decrease the chances of spreading infection than to insist on our “right to assemble” and put others in harm’s way.
Better to use the time to think about what is really best and be content with that, than to pine away for what we can’t have or do right now. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:6 that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” Why? Because we have stopped straining to keep up with whatever we were chasing after.
In these special days, we now have the time to pause and consider what truly is better for us, for you. We could consider this time as a gift to reevaluate our circumstances. We can ask, “Lord, what is truly better for me?”
Each of us have different challenges, so writing a prescriptive devotional that would cover all the bases could get pretty long. However, since I’ve already said that I believe that most of you are Fourth Soil people already, you probably already have an established time each day that you spend with the Lord. Could I encourage you to take this list of Proverbs with you into that time, read each verse slowly and ask the Lord to show you if there is anything that you need to do differently to learn His “Better,” for you.
In Christ, we no longer think as the world thinks. Almost everything listed here is upside down to the world’s way of thinking. We have come out of the world, but some of our thinking could still be fuzzy in some area that is a real personal struggle for you. I pray that the Lord will bless you in this exercise. Now, while you have more time, it just may be a good time to practice making some changes.
This leads me to compose my own proverb. Better a quarantine and more time with God than freedom and business and no time for God. What proverb could you write? Feel free to share in a reply for all of us to be blessed.
Prayer: Thank You Lord, for more time to reflect upon what is truly good. Thank You Lord for more time to do what is most important, like love my family. Thank You for guiding my thinking by Your Holy Wisdom for I must confess my own heart and mind would tend to go the opposite direction from what is best for me. In Jesus' name, amen.
Song: Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart
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