ACCEPTING CORRECTION

 

ACCEPTING CORRECTION

Prov. 10:17 People who accept correction are on the pathway to life, but those who ignore it will lead others astray. NLT

Let’s face it; all of us need correction. No one is beyond the need to be disciplined and straightened out in our thinking. No one ever lives a faultless godly life and no one understands all things clearly. If you do not see yourself in need of correction, you have a pride issue and it is sin.

Correction that is Biblically based and done in love accomplishes much good. It helps us to stay on the pathway of eternal life and to grow. It should be the goal of every believer to live a godly life, to live by the Word of God. It should be natural for us to seek counsel when we are in doubt or are struggling to understand and live out the Word properly.

When we refuse to be corrected, we not only hurt ourselves, we hurt others as well. A person who cannot be corrected is stuck. There is no growth. There is a demeanor that is influenced by his sinful nature. His counsel is flawed due to a lack of wisdom from the Spirit of Christ. There is a lack of the fruit of the Spirit in his life. There often develops a warped understanding of God and the life of holiness. Often such a person is argumentative and refuses to be corrected. He becomes self-righteous, thinking he has no sin and cannot sin. The chances are good that he will lead others away from the Lord as he wallows in his stubbornness.

Only those who are open to new understanding will grow in Christ. Only those who are humble enough to accept they don’t know it all or have it all together will be useful to God. Don’t be led astray. Don’t be so set in your ways that you can’t be corrected. Listen to the wise counsel of others. Let the Spirit of God guide you and teach you the ways of the Lord.

TREASURE KNOWLEDGE

 

TREASURE KNOWLEDGE

Prov. 10:14 Wise people treasure knowledge, but the babbling of a fool invites trouble. NLT

How well do you treasure knowledge? When you treasure knowledge, you put great value on it. He who treasures knowledge is not satisfied with what he already knows. He always is pursuing greater understanding. He knows that he does not know all things and has an open mind so that he can learn new things. Learning becomes a very vital part of living.

When you treasure knowledge, you hold onto it. You diligently watch over what you know and understand lest you forget it or it fades in importance in your life. Wise are those who have built a solid foundation of truth in their lives. Wise are those whose quest for knowledge never dies.

Wise are those who once they know and understand truth stand firmly upon it. There are certain things God reveals to us that we will never fully know or understand, but there are certain things that are universally understood amongst God’s children and we must hold fast to those things. God has never added to or taken away from His Word and He never will. What we don’t understand we hold onto by faith and await the day in which the Lord will remove the scales from off our eyes so we can understand.

Wise people do not need to flaunt what they know. Those who are quick to speak often are like babbling fools. They often have not done their studies and speak out on what they think about things and make fools of themselves. It takes time to work out the truths of the Word. It takes careful thought and meditation to discern truth from error. A person who speaks off the top of his head without clear understanding does more harm than good and needs to be quiet.

Wise people treasure knowledge. They are willing to pay the price of thinking for themselves. They are good students of the Word. They are humble in spirit and are willing to rethink things if the Spirit gives them greater understanding. They willingly discard their old ways of thinking as they mature in faith. Wise people do not hinder the work of the Spirit in them to give them proper understanding of the Scriptures.

RESPECT AND REVERENCE

 

RESPECT AND REVERENCE

Prov. 9:10 Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding. NLT

To fear the Lord means we respect who He is, we revere Him, we regard Him, and we have a revulsion for sin. I don’t believe there is as much respect for God as there should be in our lives. We have sanitized God and put Him in a neat little box in our lives. We give little thought to God as being holy and demanding of our holiness. We limit Him in our thinking to fit into our comfort zone about Him. We want Him to be all love and not a judge of sin.

Can we really say that we revere the Lord? Are we in awe of Him? Do we humble ourselves in His presence? Do we adore Him? Are we overwhelmed by His majesty and glory? Does His power impress you? Wise are those who can see God for who He is and bow in amazement before Him.

For many of us, we don’t regard God as much as we should. We reserve a certain part of our lives for Him and do not engage Him in the rest. We go about our business with little thought of how the Lord should influence what we do. We focus on Him mainly on the Lord’s Day, and then mainly for just an hour or two. Wise are those who are willing to let the Lord into every area of their lives.

Wise are those who do not like sin and strive to keep it out of their lives. They see sin as repulsive. They understand the nature of sin and how it impacts our lives. Rather than cozying up to it, they strive to stay away from it. When we fear God we are sickened by sin and find it to be revolting.

When we fear the Lord like we should, we gain an understanding of what we need to be like in order to enter into His presence. We understand what we need to do in order to have the Lord be with us in life. We take seriously our relationship with God and pursue holiness in living. When we fear the Lord we can then begin to understand just how wondrous and precious our relationship really is. We also discover just how awful and foreboding life is without Him.

If we don’t fear God, we won’t fear hell. And if we don’t fear hell, we will not see sin as being something to avoid. We will treat sin, and thus God’s grace, lightly. The beginning of wisdom is to fear God.

FEAR GOD, HATE EVIL

 

FEAR GOD, HATE EVIL

Prov. 8:13 All who fear the LORD will hate evil. That is why I hate pride, arrogance, corruption, and perverted speech. NLT

How much do you hate evil? How we feel about evil is reflected in how we live. The more we despise evil, the more we will avoid it and strive to live a holy life. Take a moment and think about how you react when evil rears its ugly head. Do you ignore it? Do you tolerate it? Do you indulge in it? Does it repulse you? Do you try to squash it?

Evil is everywhere we are at. We can't avoid it and whether or not we think we are, we are doing something about it. We are either participating in it, condoning it, or resisting it. We cannot be neutral about it. If we are in Christ, we do make choices about it all the time. When we let it entertain us we are choosing it instead of righteousness. When we allow it to go on uncontested around us, we are choosing it instead of righteousness. If we truly hated evil, I suspect things would be quite different in our homes, churches and world.

If we are in Christ, we ought to have strong feelings about evil. We should hate all that robs the soul of life and destroys it. We should not tolerate those who blatantly do evil. We may not be able to stop them, but we certainly can resist the urge to join them in their evil. We can speak up when we have the opportunity. We can urge those who do evil to stop and repent. We can all do something instead of sitting by and letting evil go wild around us.

We forfeit our right to complain about it if we are not willing to do something about it. We who are in Christ must resist it. We must be advocates for righteousness. We must be part of the solution and not the problem. God commands us to be lights in the darkness. When we don't do it, it is sin.

When we have a proper fear of God we will have a proper attitude about evil. We must understand the holiness of God and its impact on how God treats us. God is absolutely holy and He will absolutely judge all sin. It is that which is evil that sends a person to hell. It should frighten us to the point where we keep it out of our hearts and move us to do what we can to get it out of the hearts of others.

CHOOSE WISDOM FROM GOD

 

CHOOSE WISDOM FROM GOD

Prov. 8:10-11 Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge over pure gold. For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can be compared with it. NLT

The world has it all wrong. It measures the worth of people with how much money and stuff they have. Those who have a lot are deemed to be more important than those who don’t (yes, even in the church). They get preferential treatment and envied by those who don’t have as much. The quest of the world is always to get more of what they have. No matter how little or much one has, the desire for more drives them all. The world lives for what money can buy and they lavish in the comforts and things it buys.

Wise are those who don’t buy into the world’s ways. Instead of obsessing one’s life over the riches of earth, one should be obsessed with obtaining the knowledge of heaven. Far better off are those who know the Lord and His ways. Earthly treasures come and go, but God’s truths are eternal. The things we learn from God endure regardless of the circumstances of life.

Those who learn from God gain wisdom from God. They discover how to apply to life the things they learn from God. They learn how to live life in anticipation of eternity. They discover that the only thing that will prepare them for eternity is wisdom from God. They know that eternity is fleshed out in the lives of the believer. They cease to be anxious about what is going on in the world, for they know that God is in control and is working all things out for our good and His glory. They never have to worry about gaining or losing wealth because they possess that which will last forever which nothing can destroy or take from them.

Wisdom is far more valuable than all the wealth of earth combined. It is the only thing that will stand the test of time and keep the soul anchored in Christ. It is essential for our spiritual growth and the key to eternal life. Jesus is our wisdom from God and blessed are those who live in Him.

STAY FOCUSED ON CHRIST

 

STAY FOCUSED ON CHRIST

Prov. 4:25-27 Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet, then stick to the path and stay safe. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. NLT

We fall into sin when we lose our focus on Christ. When we let our minds stray, we fall prey to sin. It is that simple. As long as we are focused on Christ, sin does not allure us. When we are captivated by the righteousness and glory of Christ, nothing else matters. When we begin to look around us to see what else is there, we are easily drawn away.

We need to see Jesus who is ahead of us and focus our thoughts on Him. We need to mark out a straight path to Him and stick to it. Many of us keep wandering off because we have not marked off our path. We don’t have a plan on how to stay on the path. We begin our journey without any idea how we are going to make it home to be with our Lord. Shame on us.

In order to walk straight, we must steady ourselves. We must be students and disciples of the Word. We must determine to know as much about God and His Word as we can. We must spend as much time in fellowship with the Lord as we can. We must learn the joys of prayer and stay in constant touch with Him. We must be observant and learn how to appreciate the beauty of our walk. We must develop grateful hearts for our ability to walk and all the help the Lord gives us along the way. We must choose to walk on a straight path and not get sidetracked.

The walk of faith is not an easy one because we have a very alluring enemy who dogs our every step. He has the ability to distract us and allure us away from the path. He is very crafty and will not hesitate to use all of his resources to get us to take our eyes off of Christ. We must be aware of his tactics and determine before we encounter him that we will not let him lure us away from the Lord. We will wander, but when we do we must refocus and resume our walk with the Lord. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your salvation.

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR SOUL

 

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR SOUL

Prov. 4:23-27 Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do. Avoid all perverse talk, stay far from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet, then stick to the path and stay safe. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. NLT

No one can protect your mind and soul but you. God has given you the task of guarding your heart. No one can stay away from the distractions of sin that haunt you but you. No one can say no to sinful temptations for you. YOU must take charge of your heart and protect it from evil. No one is to blame but you if you fail to do it and fall into sin. No one can make you sin but you. It is your choice if you fall into sin. If you neglect your dutiful watch over your soul, you will sin. And, your sin will impact everything you do.

Protect your heart. Don’t use perverse speech; let only those things which honor the Lord come from your mouth. Don’t look around you at the allurements of sin. Don’t let them entice you to sin. Keep your eyes focused on the Lord and Him alone all the time. Stay on course. Don’t stray off the path of righteousness and wander into the mine fields of sin. Stay focused and take control of the path of life you walk on.

Fix your heart and mind on the Lord. Whatever builds you up in the faith and spurs you on to holy living, think about those things. If you do these things, you will find your way to the Lord. And if you don’t, you have no one to blame but yourself for missing out on the Lord and His blessings on your life. You will never find what your soul needs anywhere but in God. Only God can satisfy the longings of your soul.