Applying Wisdom to the Heart

Proverbs 22:17–18 (ESV) Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, 18 for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.

There is nothing better than to have the Word of God applied to your heart. That means you memorize it. You have it "ready on your lips" when temptation or doubt or anxiety creeps into your life. You see, none of us are immune to the attacks of life against us. Even Jesus had to handle the temptations of the flesh. But His defense and ours if we will embrace it - is the Word of God - wisdom from heaven. 

Now here in Proverbs 22:17 the books shifts from Solomon's sayings to the words of other wise people. And what follows are thirty sayings that we do well to apply to our hearts. 

Many of these sayings are focused on behavior to avoid. The "do nots" if you will. Do not take advantage of the poor, do not hang with angry men, do not put up security for others, do not move ancient landmarks, do not cheat your neighbor, do not desire the delicacies of a ruler, do not wear yourself out to get rich, do not hang with stingy people, do not "waste your breath on fools" (Proverbs 23:9). And so goes the warnings of what we must not do. 

All this makes the point - we grow in wisdom by understanding what to avoid and who to avoid. The world is filled with pitfalls and pitiful people. 

That's why the writer returns again to a call of commitment to learning:
Proverbs 23:12 (ESV) Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.

And then this admonition from the teacher:
Proverbs 23:15–16 (ESV) My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad. 16 My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.

Do you want wisdom? Get around people who love giving you God's wisdom. Those who have applied their time and life to learning from Him. They will rejoice in your growth. They will not envy your development. Because they know that your wisdom will preserve your life and those who come after you. 

Proverbs 23:17–18 (ESV) Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day. 18 Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

Back to the heart. Guard it from envying those without God. The heart, not the mind is the place where wisdom germinates so be mindful of what you put in and rehearse. The Wisdom of God will bring you a hopeful future in spite of the normal and natural attacks of life to come against you. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God’s View of You

Sometimes I think we imagine that God is mostly disappointed with us. That He puts up with us and bears with us because He has to (after all He is love), but most of the time our glaring weaknesses weary Him and make His day miserable. Of course, this is the devil’s doing in our minds. The truth of scripture bears out that the world has to get staunch-raving evil before God is totally weary of us. And the stories in the Old Testament remind us with each passing character that God is patient, loving and kind to His very flawed inconsistent servants. Saul is a case study of this. His lineage will not hold the kingdom, that has already been stated from the mishap of offering the sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive in 1 Samuel 13. His next great gaff will happen in the chapter to come in 1 Samuel 15 where his own kingship will be taken from him and the anointing placed on one soon to come. Yes, God will regret making Saul king and we’ll talk about that next. But for now...
Read more

The Stain of Slavery

One of the greatest pains in my heart over the history of the church is the fact that many "Bible-believing" Christians used the Bible to promote, continue, and enable slavery in America's past. It may have happened elsewhere, but I'm an American, and I know it happened here. Then, some repeatedly make the claim because of a tiny amount of verses where God informs Israel on how to take slaves, it means the Bible is a pro-slavery document. How absurd. The overarching narrative of the Bible is that God sets the slaves free. The second book testifies to this part of God's character.  Getting to Jeremiah's day, one of the reasons Israel's nation was handed over to exile was because they enslaved each other. This attitude was so engrained into the culture of Israel that they had a hard time giving up slavery even in the face of national catastrophe.  In Jeremiah 34, the king is promised that he will die in Babylon, but he will die in peace. Jeremiah 34:3–5 (ESV...
Read more

Leaders Who Later Fail

Remember Johanan from Jeremiah 41? The man who saved many others from the threats of the murderous coup? He seemed like a noble leader. But time reveals a lot.  Jeremiah 42:5–6 (ESV)  Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.” These are the words of the presumptive leaders of Israel in the land while the nation is in exile. The previous chapter saw a hero arise to protect a few remaining survivors. His name was Johanan. On the surface, he seems like a good man, seeking the will of the Lord in his leadership position. Jeremiah returns with directives from the Lord: Jeremiah 42:10 (ESV) If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant y...
Read more