Scripture:
“The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
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 let the one who understands obtain guidance; to understand a proverb and a saying-the words of the wise and their riddles-(know this)–The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Prov 1:1-7
Observation:
Solomon is in a unique position to offer these insights: supernatural wisdom, significant learnings from his old man that he paid attention to, and just good, common, sense. Add to this that he majors in blunt speech makes Proverbs a book to pay considerable attention to.
Application:
There are just times where I need to be told “Don’t be a fool.” The blunter version of that is “don’t be stupid.”
I hate being told and talked to like I am dumber than a box of rocks. I rise up; defend myself saying “if you talk to me better I will pay attention. As it stands at the moment, because you are not coming to me in a pretense and attitude of love I am rebuking you, telling you to get your attitude right because it isn’t pleasing to God”-turning the heat back on the speaker. That is exactly the way I have been approached before and, reconsidering from a distance, I wonder if I really missed a Word from the Lord. Probably did. I am a fool that way.
And yet it is a spontaneous reflex-I don’t like to be told what to do, I like to tell. It is hard to react humbly when someone reminds me how stupid I am for not listening. What I need to learn is that reacting humbly and godly is a matter of learning, training, and discipline. It is supernatural, no doubt about that. But with clarity, it is a matter of surrendering to the Holy Spirit and cooperating with the Holy Spirit in what is termed “progressive sanctification.”
Basically: I have to want to be trained, I have to be diligent in training, and I have to surrender to training, all to walk worthy of the Gospel. I have to put my nose to the Gospel grindstone daily with the goal of being reflexive in my pursuit of God and of my output of Godly living.
I am not a fan of the “don’t do” method of learning but there are times where it is the most efficient way of getting the point across (put this in the category of “don’t be a fool”). “Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Don’t want to be a fool? Don’t despise wisdom and instruction, but welcome and enthusiastically embrace wisdom and instruction. Better yet, don’t wait for it to come to you but go out and chase it down.
Prayer:
Lord God-Please do not let me succumb to the attitude that learning about You is too complicated. I also don’t want to succumb to an “all learning, no action” heartset when it comes to walking worthy of the Calling. Searching for You, searching Your Word, learning about You, Your attributes, Your objectives-what You are, is the epitome of what I can do in this life. I want to learn so I can with eager conviction point to You and say: “There! Come with me and see the Redeemer!” AMEN.
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