Probing Proverbs:
1:4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment
to the young.
Here we see the power of the Word of God! Most of life is made
up of "living and then learning," however Scripture can change that
cycle! If we are willing we can learn from God truths concerning life and then
Live! How much better it is to learn and live!
Consider how much grief we can
miss if we are wise enough to learn from God's Word and allow the Holy Spirit
to illuminate us as we walk our path of life. This does not mean we will not
have troubles, or trials or even experience personal failures; they are a
reality in this life. There is one thing this life has taught me…I
would rather deal only with the woes that this world brings me, instead of
dealing with all the “self inflicted” ones my own sinfulness and stupidity
bring me. Yes, we will fall at times, because we have that old sin nature in us,
yet, if we choose to pay attention to God, we can gain much wisdom that can
lead us to live in a way that leads to learning and then living.
Notice what this Proverb promises. "Insight"
"knowledge" and "discernment"...not to the educated scholar
or the person that has tucked many years under their belt! God is in favor of
all of us getting educated and deep in study, plus we all know that certain
teachings require some years of living to “really get,” however, even though you don’t
have a college degree, even if you have not lived a long life, God’s
Word can help anyone still see with eyes of wisdom, His wisdom! It can bring a
young person the discernment that usually only the older person has. His Word
explains the complexity of Truth, His Spirit allows us to receive and
comprehend it.
So many believers hunger earnestly to understand what God
desires for their life, yet they fail to find it and after a period of time
seem to accept this frustration and move to a nominal experience with Christ. I
have heard "Pharisees" judge that most of these believers either are
not authentic believers, or just carnal.
From all my years of shepherding,
listening to so many hearts, I cannot believe those two judgments. I believe
instead, that the cause of this is from an ignorance of how our walk with
Christ works. Many believers have been influenced by "religiosity" in
such a way that they have become delusional that a "relationship"...a
deep, intimate relationship can "just happen!" They believe that by
following a system of things to do, intimacy with our eternal Creator will
suddenly manifest itself. Nothing is further from the truth! In fact nothing is
more contrary to the plan God design for us than that. God never desired a dead
set of rituals as a means to honor and know Him. No, God designed it to be the
most difficult and the most rewarding…it is called a Relationship! You get out
of it what you put into it! Notice how Paul put it:
Philippians 3:8–11 More than that, I count all things to
be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that
I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not
having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which comes from
God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the
power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed
to His death; in order that I may attain
to the resurrection from the dead.
Like any relationship, you have to lose yourself in some ways
to find the other person. God does not want us to stop existing as individuals,
but He knows that if we approach a relationship with Him based on what it will
do for us…well we have a myriad of failed marriages that prove my point.
The richest relationship is when we die to most of our wants and prefer the
needs and wants of the one that we are pursuing. When both individuals approach
a relationship like that, the reward is the richest in the world! God has
already denied Himself completely in becoming flesh, and the sacrifice to
provide redemption! So now the ball is in our court. This is why the Scriptures
are so important because they supply the data that the Holy Spirit takes to
illuminate us to Who our God is and how we can love Him.
No matter your age, or education, God’s Word will open your
mind, soul and heart to know Him, to know Him deeply!
“The so what?”
