One of the things I've been thinking about is the holiness of God. It started with my Bible study in Matthew, which I've now finished, and has continued with some of my pastor's messages and several other sources, one being GermanWrench's wonderful blog entitled What It Is To Be A Christian. Anyway, it has gotten me thinking and praying a lot. After this past Sunday's sermon, I knew that I had to blog about this. In thinking about all of this and going back to GermanWrench's aforementioned blog several times and watching the full length version of Paul Washer's sermon on YouTube, one of the scriptures I have read (also was my pastor's sermon last Sunday) is Proverbs 3:5-12, which says,
"5- Lean on, trust in, and
be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely
on your own insight or understanding. 6- In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. 7- Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil. 8- It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones. 9- Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors] and with the firstfruits of all your income; 10- So shall your storage places be filled with plenty, and your vats shall be overflowing with new wine. 11- My
son, do not despise or shrink from the chastening of the Lord [His
correction by punishment or by subjection to suffering or trial];
neither be weary of or impatient about or loathe or abhor His reproof, 12- For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights."
I chose the Amplified Bible so that I would be able to elaborate on the verses more easily.
Taking verse 5 apart: "Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind..." What does this look like? To me, it's best described in a song called Trust His Heart by Babbie Mason. The chorus is: God is too wise to be mistaken. God is too good to be unkind. So when you don't understand, when you don't see His plan, when you can't see His hand, trust His heart. Because of my relationship with Jesus Christ, I know I can trust Him because He has always been faithful to me. He's given me a peace, often times a verse to reassure me or a song that speaks to what I'm going through. I've been through too many things where He has given me those things to doubt that He is really there.
The second part of verse 5 is: "...and do not rely on your own insight or understanding." The most damaging thing to our relationship with God is pride. God never intended us to be alone in this world, to try to do everything or handle everything on our own. He is the giver of wisdom (Prov. 9:10, Ps. 111:10, Prov. 1:7) and we should not reject that wisdom and use our own.
Verse 6: "In all your ways know, recognize and acknowledge Him and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths." Is there something hindering God from directing your path? This question has been one that I've been asking myself the last few days. Are my actions pleasing to Him? Are my motivations?
Verse 7: "Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil." Here is that pride again. My pastor expressed on Sunday that pride in its greatest expression is to live like we want to and believe that we have access to God's promises. We cannot expect God to bless us when we are living unholy lives. As Christians we are accountable to God for the way we live our lives. Yes, we still sin, but we need to realize our sin right away, confess it and turn from it. This is the only way to live in true freedom.
We as a nation, as a Church (collectively speaking of all Christians) have lost our fear of the Lord. How can we truly worship God if we are gossiping about someone or looking at inappropriate material on Saturday night and then going to church Sunday morning, praying that God will be blessed by our praise and worship time. He won't! How can He? God hears our prayers all the time, but He can only truly work in our lives if our hearts are desiring to live holy lives.
Because of the length of my post I'll continue the rest of the verses on another day, but in the meantime I would love to hear feedback from anyone who is interested in leaving it.
I have often considered that the world and the media have openly tried to instill among women who have grown up in the past few decades a philosophy that is in direct opposition to verses 5 and 6. We have been encouraged to step up to the plate, become assertive, make things happen, and set a goal and go for it. Our conflict often comes when we try to negotiate those ideas that have been ingrained in us with "don't rely on your own understanding" and "He will direct your path." I believe it's just another example of how Satan gets into our head with ideas that seem positive, but get in the way of our relationship with God.
Comments (1)
I have often considered that the world and the media have openly tried to instill among women who have grown up in the past few decades a philosophy that is in direct opposition to verses 5 and 6. We have been encouraged to step up to the plate, become assertive, make things happen, and set a goal and go for it. Our conflict often comes when we try to negotiate those ideas that have been ingrained in us with "don't rely on your own understanding" and "He will direct your path." I believe it's just another example of how Satan gets into our head with ideas that seem positive, but get in the way of our relationship with God.
I look forward to reading more of your thoughts!