Month: November 2012

Proverbs 2d

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An Inside Job.

“For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.” – Proverbs 2:10 NLT

Imagine being able to make wise decisions without having to stop and think about it. Consider what it would be like to avoid wrong choices or costly moral mistakes, because you instinctively knew what to do and did it without hesitation. Take a minute to think what your life would be like if you always knew what was the right, just and fair thing to do. What if you always knew the right path to take in life? That is exactly what God offers those who learn to fear Him and who pursue an intimate relationship with Him. He promises to put His wisdom in their hearts, providing them with a capacity and capability to live wisely and godly in the midst of a fallen world. Rather than His wisdom being some outside commodity that we have to consult and search for every step along the way, He wants to make His wisdom resident within us. He wants to provide us with the capacity to choose wisely, act justly, behave righteously, think purely and live godly. And the more we fear Him and grow in our knowledge of Him, the more we will recognize the wisdom of God motivating and guiding our lives on a daily basis.

God is out to change our hearts, not just modify our behavior. Christianity is not some list of rules or standards for us to attempt to keep. It is about the Spirit of God coming to reside within the hearts of men, providing them with the power to live in a way that honors God and goes against their own sinful predispositions. As a result of the fall and the presence of our sin natures, all men lack wisdom within. They may have intelligence, but they are devoid of godly wisdom and lack the capacity to make wise decisions. But God offers to change all that. He has provided a way in which men can exchange their foolishness for wisdom. As a result of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, men can now receive the Spirit of God and the capacity to live lives that are pleasing to God. Not based on human effort, but on the very power of God living within the human heart. This is an inside job. God renews us from the inside out. He places within us the power to live wisely and righteously. He changes our desires. He alters our motivations. He refocuses our values and provides us with new incentives. He plants within us a desire for His will in place of our own. His Spirit opens up the Scriptures to us in ways we never understood before and gives us the capacity to live out the tenets of the faith in a strength we never had before. We find ourselves becoming wiser and wiser, capable of understanding what is right, just and fair. We instinctively know the right way to go, the right path to take. God’s wisdom is resident within us, guiding and protecting us along the way. And the result is a joy and confidence we never had before. Our hearts have been changed and our lives will never be the same.

Father, thank You that You are out to change my heart, not just require me to alter my behavior. Help me to understand that it has to start from the inside and work its way out. I need Your wisdom to know how to act, what to say, how to behave. I need Your power to live the life You’ve called me to live. But I need my heart continually transformed so that I can love what You love and see life the way You see life. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Proverbs 1c

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A Dangerous Combination.

“For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord.” – Proverbs 1:29 NLT

Over and over again in the Book of Proverbs we are reminded that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.” It is only when we learn to fear God that we gain the wisdom He offers. He places it in our hearts and equips us with all we need to live life in a godly manner. It is only when we come to know God for who He really is that we discover the good judgment, common sense and understanding we need to live life in the midst of a fallen world. In verse 7 of today chapter, Solomon tells us that “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline” (Proverbs 1:7 NLT). Only a fool would thumb his nose at the wisdom God makes available. To reject the wisdom God offers is to reject God. It is the same as telling Him He is useless and meaningless when it comes to adding any value to our lives. That is an incredibly foolish conclusion to make, but we all do it at times. But it is dangerous to make a habit out of rejecting God’s wisdom and refusing to fear Him. Over in chapter two, Solomon tells us just what it means to fear the Lord. It is when we tune our ears to His wisdom, concentrate on gaining understanding from Him, cry out for His insight, ask for greater understanding, and search for them with the same intensity as I would hidden treasure. Solomon tells us that if we seek from God all that He has to offer, THEN we will understand what it means to fear the Lord. It is a sense of total dependency and humble acknowledgment of our need that best illustrates what the fear of the Lord really is. And it is only when we get desperate enough to seek Him diligently and fervently that we will grow in our understanding of who He really is. We will discover that He alone provides us with wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

But if we refuse to seek Him, need Him, or rely upon Him, we will find that He is not there when the time comes. He warns, “So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you — when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you. When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me” (Proverbs 1:26-28 NLT). That’s a very dangerous place to be. Only a fool would place himself in that kind of predicament. Only a fool would allow himself to reach the point where God allowed him to reap the rewards of his own stupidity and stubbornness. “Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes” (Proverbs 1:31 NLT).

The fear of the Lord and knowledge of God are the key. Those two things should be our greatest aspirations. We should desire them more than anything else. But they come as a result of the acknowledgement of our desperate need for God. It is only when we recognize our need for all that God has to offer that we will seek Him diligently and desperately. And we will learn what it means to fear Him and grow in our knowledge of Him.

Father, thank You for constantly revealing to me my desperate need for You. Keep me focused on my neediness so that I might turn to You in desperateness. I don’t want to reject or take lightly Your offer of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. I want to learn to fear You more and grow in my knowledge of You. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org