SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/10/2013 7:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Wisdom
Perfects our Path PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Proverbs
4:20-27
Message of the
verses: We will look at the last
sub-point from the third main point in the fourth chapter of Proverbs as we
follow Warren Wiersbe’s commentary for our outline. He wrote the following at the end of
introductory commentary from this third main point, “Our path may not be an
easy one, but it will always be a fulfilling one as we walk in the will of the
Father. This involves three
responsibilities on our part: knowing
God’s Word (Pr. 4:1-9), trusting God’s providence (vv. 10-19), and obeying
God’s will (vv. 20-27).”
Obeying God’s Will
(vv. 20-27): “20 My son, give
attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them
depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. 22 For they are
life to those who find them And health to all their body. 23 Watch over your heart with all
diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. 24 Put away from you a
deceitful mouth And put devious speech far from you. 25 Let your eyes look
directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. 26 Watch
the path of your feet And all your ways will be established. 27 Do not turn to
the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.”
With this paragraph we have the opportunity to take
spiritual inventory of our life in order to see if we are truly living for the
Lord.
We first look at verse twenty to check out our ears to
see if we are listening to the right things for the things that enter our ears
go into our minds and can influence both the mind and the heart along with our
decision process. As we look at Psalm
one we can see that listening to unwise people will give us great
problems. There are three stages in the
first part of this psalm where the psalmist writes “How blessed is the man who
does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor
sit in the seat of scoffers.” The
psalmist then contrasts this with the person who has his delight within the Law
of the Lord and in His Law he meditates day and night. Listening to the world or to the Word is the
question of Psalm one.
We next move to what is in our hearts and we find that in
verse twenty-three. Dr. Wiersbe writes
“whatever the heart loves, the ears will hear and the eyes will see.” Our hearts are, according to verse 23 “a
wellspring of life” (NIV). We dare not
pollute that wellspring for if we do the infection will spread and it will not
take long for our hearts to desire the wrong things. Romans 12:2 is a verse that has meant a lot
to me as it speaks of transforming one’s life, “And do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God
is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” The transforming of one’s mind can only be done by the Word of God.
In verse twenty-four we see that our lips and our mouth
are spoken of and we need to guard what comes out of our mouth. Jesus tells some Pharisees the following, “33 "Either make the tree good and its fruit
good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its
fruit. 34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that
which fills the heart. (Matt. 12:33-34)
Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech always be with grace, as though
seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each
person.” Proverbs 15:1 says “A gentle
answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Verse 25 speaks of watching what is before our eyes. We can see this better by looking at two OT
men. Abraham walked with God and was
looking for a city that was made by God while Lot became a friend of the world
because he walked by sight and moved toward the wicked city of Sodom where he
ended up living. In Psalm 101:3 David
writes, “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.” This is wonderful advice and should be put
near all of our TV’s.
1/10/2013 11:28 AM, I had to go to a funeral and now I am
back to finish this SD.
I want now to look now at verses 26-27 which teach us
what is beyond our path. “26 Watch the
path of your feet And all your ways will be established. 27 Do not turn to the
right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.” We see the feet in this passage and so we
continue to look at the different parts of our bodies that help us understand
these verses. We see in verse 26 the
word “watch” while in the KJV the word “ponder” is used, “26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy
ways be established. 27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy
foot from evil.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “The
Hebrew word translated ‘ponder’ means ‘to weigh’ or ‘to make level.’ It is related to a word that means ‘scales’
(16:11). In his final speech before he
drank the hemlock, Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’; Paul
wrote, ‘Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves’ (2Cor 13:3, NKJV). The Lord is weighing our ways (Prov. 5:21)
and our hearts (21:2), as well as our actions (1Sam. 2:3), and we had better do
the same. Life is too short and too precious to be wasted on the
temporary and the trivial.
“If we’re walking in the way of the wisdom, God promises
to protect our path, direct our path, and perfect our path.
“All folly can offer us is danger, detours, and
disappointments, ultimately leading to death.
“It shouldn’t be too difficult to make the right choice!”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The message at
the funeral that I just attended has some similar thoughts in it as Dr. Wiersbe
wrote about in these last three short paragraphs. The Pastor said too that life is short and
that we should do things that please the Lord with our lives, for those are the
most important things that we can do. We
are to stay on the path of wisdom and not the path of folly. Wisdom is the woman that is clean and pure
while folly is the woman that is the prostitute, something we will begin to
look at in the next SD as we look at chapters 5-7 in which Dr. Wiersbe entitles
this chapter “The Path of Folly and Death.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6 have been given new meaning to
me as I studied this third chapter in Dr. Wiersbe commentary that included the
third chapter of Proverbs. Wisdom is
what will keep me on the correct path, a path that God will direct, however
folly will take me off that path, and thus God will not direct my path. I want to stay on the path of wisdom.
Turning Points Wisdom for
today: “Never compromise with those who
water down the Word of God to human experience.” (Oswald Chambers) “The Law of the LORD is
perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise
the simple; the statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the
commandment of the LORD is pure enlightening the eyes.” (Psalm 19:7-8)
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 121:1-4
1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where
will my help come? 2 My help comes from
the Lord who made heaven and earth. 3 He
will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold He who keeps Israel will neither slumber
nor sleep.
1/10/2013 11:50 AM
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