SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/28/2013 12:02 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Perusing
Wisdom PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Various
Scripture verses
Message of the
verses: We will continue in our look
at wisdom and how to obtain it as we look through different verses from the
Scriptures, mostly in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs is, to me a difficult book to deal with, but I am following the
outline that Dr. Wiersbe has in his commentary on Proverbs which, starting with
the fifth chapter in his book deals with different topics, of which the first
of these is wisdom.
Wise People
Associate with Wise People: Let us
begin with looking at Proverbs 13:20 “He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Let’s look at proverbs 12:26 “A righteous man is cautious in friendship,
but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
(NIV) This verse speaks of the
necessity of choosing one’s friends wisely.
We cannot go wrong by looking at different peoples of the Bible who made
wise choices as we become friends with them in our journey through the
Scriptures. Think of Abraham and Moses
and then think of Joshua. Next we can
think of Samuel and then David and some of the righteous kings that followed in
his line. Then we think of some of
prophets like Isaiah and Daniel and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Finally we come to John the Baptist and then
the wisest of them all our Lord Jesus Christ.
Next we think of the apostles and those who followed after them like
Barnabus and Mark and Silas and many others that I don’t have time to
mention. We can’t stop with those for we
must also look at some of the early Christians all the way up to believers in
our day. I can include Warren Wiersbe,
John MacArthur, David Jeremiah, and Joseph Stowell, and then a man whose books
are difficult to read but filled with much truth, A. W. Tozer. These are all men who are or were wise and
when we befriend a person in our lives we must make sure that they are also
people who are wise and make wise choices.
Dr Wiersbe mentions that in his personal library that he
has hundreds of biographies of former great believers that he has read and has
gained much insight from them. This is a
wonderful idea to follow. I have read
biographies of D. L. Moody and have gained much insight from those books but
need to do more along those lines.
Wise People
Preserve what They’ve Gained.
Proverbs 10:14 states “Wise men store up knowledge, But with the mouth
of the foolish, ruin is at hand.” Now
look at Proverbs 12:27 “A lazy man does not roast his prey, But the precious
possession of a man is diligence.” “A
lazy life is an empty life, but "early to rise" gets the job done.” (Message)
As believers we are not to waste the things that we have learned through
the Scriptures, through the sermons we hear, the good books we read, of for
that matter through the things that our wise friends can teach us.
Wise People Flee
from Sin. Proverbs 14:16 “A wise man
is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and careless.” In order to flee from sinful situations we
must fear the Lord and love what He loves and hate what He hates. Joseph is a wonderful example of this as he
flees from Potiphar’s wife who tried to seduce him. Joseph was not a
self-confident man, but depended upon the Lord.
Joshua was self-confident and lost a battle because of it. Joshua was of course a believer and just made
a bad choice so I do not think of him as being a fool, but one who made a
foolish decision or which we all have made.
Dr. Wiersbe states the following “Wise people don’t take
unnecessary chances and experiment to see how close they can get to the
precipice without falling off.” One of
the Pastor’s at our church made this one of his points in a sermon that he gave
at the beginning of this New Year.
Wise People
Discipline their Speech. Proverbs
16:23 states “A wise heart instructs its mouth and increases learning with its
speech.” Proverbs 10:19 “When there are
many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is
wise.” We will look further at what
Proverbs has to say about the dynamics and dangers of human speech latter on in
our study.
Galatians 5 speaks of the “fruit of the Spirit” and a
portion of that fruit is self-control.
Peter speaks of this also in Second Peter in a list of qualities that
believers should have in their life.
James speaks about the dangers of not controlling the tongue in James
chapter three.
Wise People are
Diligent in their Work. Proverbs 10:4 “Poor is he who works with a
negligent hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in
summer is a son who acts wisely, But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts
shamefully.” Dr. Wiersbe states “Wise
people are working people, people who make the most of their opportunities and
who carry their share of the load.” One
of the things that was taught in the house that I grew up in was to work hard
and this was passed on to my two sisters and to myself.
Wise People seek to
Influence Others to Trust the Lord.
Proverbs 11:30 “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who
is wise wins souls.” This is a wonderful
verse for in it we see that as believers we are to pass on the way of salvation
to our lost friends, and to those to whom the Lord had directed onto our
path. Peter says that we are always to
be ready to tell others about the hope that we have within us. That hope of course is that we have had our
sins forgiven through the precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
who paid the price for our sins at Calvary as He actually became sin for us so
that we may obtain His righteousness. Dr.
Wiersbe states that “Wisdom leads to righteousness, and righteousness produces
fruit” as Proverbs 11:30 says, “ and then this fruit ‘entices’ those who are
hungry for what is real and eternal. By
both their lives and their words, wise people seek to lead others to the Lord.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section
about wise people by writing the following:
“As we continue our study of Proverbs, we’ll discover other personal
characteristics of those who are wise; I trust we’ll seek to imitate them. After all, God promises that the wise will
inherit glory (3:35), bring joy to others (10:1; 15:20), bring help from God
(12:18), never be in want (21:20), and have strength to wage war (24:5-6). The way of wisdom is the way of true life.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Make wise choices
and not make foolish choices. Continue
to learn about wise choices as I study the book of Proverbs.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to learn contentment by learn
the way of the wise. Continue to have my
mind transformed by the Word of God.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 121:1-8
1I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; for where shall
my help come? 2 My help comes from the
LORD who made heaven and earth. 3 He
will not allow my foot to slip; He who keeps me will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither
slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is your
keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, nor the
moon by night. 7 The LORD will protect
you from all evil; He will keep your soul.
8 The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time
forth and forever.
Turning Points Wisdom for
Today: “If I have seen farther than
others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” (Isaac Newton) “Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” (Proverbs 11:14)
1/28/2013 1:28 PM
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