March 17 – A Way to Give Honor (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“Honor the Lord with your wealth.”(Proverbs 3:9)

IN WORD:
We’re often not conscious of the statements we make, but they are more numerous than we think. We aren’t aware of them because most are not verbal. They are revelations of the heart, spoken by our choices. As is often said, actions speak louder than words.
Consider, for example, what we are saying when we have no money for God’s ministry but enough to pay the cable bill. Or when we see the starving and wish we could help — and then waste money on soft drinks with no nutritional value. Why does $30 a month to save a child seem like so much, and $30 for a steak dinner for 2 seem like such a bargain? What do our choices say of God? Not much. They say more about our values. They reveal what’s in our heart.
God is not an enemy of entertainment and taste buds. But He is an enemy of idols, and our choices reveal what they are. We deceive ourselves often — our enormous capacity for doing so came with the Fall. It’s amazing how much we can’t afford to do for God’s Kingdom — the budget is always tight, right? Meanwhile, the vacations we really want to take are usually taken. The meals we really want to eat are usually eaten. The make & model we want to drive is usually in our driveway. We more comfortably delay God’s gratification than our own.

IN DEED:
We need to snap out of our unconsciousness. Many of our idols have become automatic to us. We don’t see them as intentional choices that reveal the treasures of our heart. But deep down we know: If we loved God with all of our being, if we treasured his Kingdom above all else, He would see more of our treasure given for His use.
Why is this so important? Does God have insufficient finds? Probably not. The Owner of all isn’t short of cash when He really wants to accomplish something. He wants more than cash. He wants us to value faith, the currency of His Kingdom, over the currency of this world. More than that, He wants us. He wants our choices to reflect an intense, unbridled love. He wants them to honor Him.

“Get all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.”
-John Wesley-

March 16 – The Road to Health (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”(Proverbs 3:8)

IN WORD:
We don’t try to drive our cars in the water and we don’t try to speed our boats down the highway. Why? That’s not what they were made for. So why do we use ourselves for purposes we were not made for? Why, when we were created to be entirely preoccupied with our Creator, do we become entirely preoccupied with ourselves? This does damage to our minds, and our minds affect our bodies. Our thoughts become distorted, our bodies become sick, and we end up a mess; a self-absorbed mess. We are misplaced vehicles on the wrong course.
Do you believe that? Do you understand that we were created to be fascinated by, overwhelmed with, and enraptured in our Maker? The fallen mind avoids this at all costs. We try to make a name for ourselves. We try to get in good with the right people. We read self-help books. We learn various philosophies and methods that will lead us to a better way of life. And it’s all about us.
God points us away from ourselves and toward Him. He is to be our vision, our passion, our love. So far-reaching is this principle that it can bring health to our bodies. When we align ourselves with our created purpose, we are like the perfect part in a precision machine. We can function without undue wear & tear. Or we’re like a beautiful piece of music played in the right key. We can perform without grating on everyone around us and depressing ourselves in the process.

IN DEED:
We place a high premium on good health. In a sick & fallen world, it is a valued commodity. We try to eat well, take our vitamins, select the right doctor, exercise often, and pray to avoid deadly diseases. But if we haven’t immersed our minds in reality — that God is our all in all — we haven’t taken the first step toward good health. Your mind has a profound effect on your psychology. Let it always be nourished by eternal truth.

“Our only business is to love and delight ourselves in God.”
-Brother Lawrence-

March 15 – The Escape From Self (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.”
(Proverbs 3:7)

IN WORD:
If we ever take hold of the idea that we are innately wise, we are destined for failure. In fact, Proverbs 16:18 says as much: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Placing any faith in our own wisdom is a form of pride. It is also self-delusion. We do not know anything about the future for certain; we don’t know the intricacies of our own hearts; we don’t see all the motives and moods of other people; we don’t have an infallible understanding of human psychology; and we don’t fully grasp the spiritual realities of God’s Kingdom. God has a handle on all of these things; we have a handle on none of them. To act as if the reverse is true is the ultimate foolishness.
We’ve read that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Proverbs 3:7 implies that the opposite of fearing the Lord is self-reliance. We absolutely must understand the gap between us and God — and how amazingly it was bridged — if we are to act wisely. We cannot approach life without an overwhelming sense of the eternal if we are to invest in what is truly valuable. Understanding God will change how we spend our time, our money, and our talents. It will change how we approach our circumstances, our relationships, our work, and our attitudes.

IN DEED:
Have you noticed that those who make bad decisions are usually acting out of extreme self-interest? A focus on self leads to devastating shortsightedness and has evil, destructive consequences. A focus on God — His character, His ways, His eternal nature — leads people to wisdom.
Try this exercise the next time you face a decision: Instead of writing a list of pros & cons, write a list of motives for each choice. Pros & cons are about outcomes; but since we can’t know the future, they are only guesses. Motives are about perspective; they identify the center of our lives. If we’re centered on ourselves, we’re fools; if on God, we’re wise.

“All the graces of a Christian spring from the death of self.”
-Madame Guyon-

March 14 – The Path to a Straight Path (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”(Proverbs 3:6)

IN WORD:
We are starved for direction. We live in a world that presents us with a multitude of options. Some can be ruled out easily, but many of them seem good. What will we do? Whom should we relate to? Where will we go? When should we move forward? We don’t know enough about the future to make such decisions well. We try to make sound choices and hope for the best. We want more information; but we hesitate when we find that god’s plan for us first requires casting our all on Him.
That’s why horoscopes are so appealing to so many. They offer direction without making any demands on our character. They promise information without requiring the hard work of submission to God and acceptance of His work on our fallen hearts. But God loves us too much for that. Getting direction from Him means, first and foremost, getting Him. His Spirit shapes us, His wisdom becomes a part of us, and the substance of godliness molds us into a form of godliness.

IN DEED:
God is not usually an oracle-giver. He’s a life transformer. He usually directs us not by passing on information about what we’re to do, but by fundamentally altering us from within. He changes our character, our outlook, our priorities. Then we are directed by the person God has made us into — a new creation governed by the indwelling Jesus.
This is a shock to our system, but it is essential. That is why this proverb does not simply start with: “He will make your paths straight.” There are conditions. We trust Him with all our heart. We refuse to lean on our own understanding. We acknowledge His sufficiency — implying our own insufficiency — in everything. THEN He makes our paths straight. Why? Because He is present. We have not simply used Him for His vast information, we have invited Him to come along on the journey.

“God always gives his very best to those who leave the choice with Him.” -Hudson Taylor-

March 13 – The Direction to Lean (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

IN WORD:
In order to learn the mind of God, we have to face up to a sobering fact: Our own understanding is fundamentally flawed. The human mind is never dependable, and it cannot be given free reign to choose its own direction. Why? Because our knowledge is limited and our motives are not pure. In our original condition, we do not desire above all else to glorify God at any cost. Even when we’ve come into a relationship with Him, our motives can be mixed. We want His glory, but we want to seek our own good — in our own way — as well. We cannot be wise in this world without realizing we need the wisdom of Another. Desperately.
Think about it. Would you prefer to depend on the logic of a finite mind tainted with sinful motives? Or on the vast intellectual resources of the Omniscient — the One who knows the fabric of our souls and holds the future in His hands? The answer ought to be clear. Yet, at a practical level, we are often ambivalent about the choice. In principle, we want God’s wisdom. In practice, we follow our own.

IN DEED:
The best advice we can find in Proverbs repeatedly points us to a wisdom beyond our own. God is worthy of all our trust. We are worthy of suspicion. Yet we often struggle between His wisdom and ours. His can seem so hard. We forget that ours is harder. There are ominous consequences for depending on our own limited resources.
Trust is not natural to the fallen human heart. The redeemed heart has to learn it. We must make a conscious decision to forsake our own understanding and lean on His. Crises confront us all the time. Use them as opportunities to drink in the wisdom of the Source of all wisdom. Are you faced with a choice today? Make up your mind not to act on it until you have sought God’s wisdom diligently, persistently, and patiently. Ask Him for it. Follow it, no matter how hard it is. Let His mind become yours.

“O Lord, in Thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded.”
-Book of Common Prayer-

March 12 – The Key to Favor (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“You will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”(Proverbs 3:4)

IN WORD:
God’s promise of favor is a little suspicious to us. We’ve known of many faithful servants who did not have a good name, at least in the eyes of their peers. Sometimes they were burned at the stake, sometimes they were tarnished with false accusations, sometimes they faced firing squads. In fact, Jesus assured His disciples they would be hated by many. How, then, can Solomon, if he is at all inspired by God, promise a good name to those who write love and faithfulness on their hearts?
We do not read God’s promises with enough faith or patience. We must first know that the promise of favor with God is immediate. He never withholds His affection from those who love Him faithfully. It’s the second part of this promise we struggle with. He promises favor in the sight of man. Can this be true? Yes, if we’ll read it with eternity in view. Those who love God will have remarkable reputations in the Kingdom. Men will know that God has favored His faithful ones. They may not know it now or even soon. They may not know it before you die. But they will eventually know it. God has promised.

IN DEED:
We often get off track because we are determined to have a good reputation among our peers right now. Many a believer has compromised his or her faith because of a desire to be respected by other people more than by God. But love and faithfulness are selective. They cannot be directed toward God and toward our own present reputation at the same time. Compromise is deadly. We must be content — even thrilled — with the idea that God’s favor is our right now, and man’s will come later — maybe even much later, when eternity is revealed to all. Hearts filled with love and faithfulness will not care. They will be patient. They will know the promise of the One they love.

“Faith in God will always be crowned.” -William S. Plummer-

March 11 – The Priority to Pursue (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
(Proverbs 3:3)

IN WORD:
Solomon’s words would have had familiar connotations for a faithful Jew. In Deuteronomy 6, a landmark chapter in Old Testament theology, God told the Israelites first to love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength. Then He told them to take the words of the Law, divinely inscribed on tablets of stone, and inscribe them into the fabric of their souls. Let them be always on your hearts, He commanded. Work them into your children’s hearts. Talk about them always. Tie them as symbols on your hands and foreheads. Never be away from them (see Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
The interesting connection between Deuteronomy and Proverbs is that the Law is defined as “love and faithfulness.” It is also interesting that Deuteronomy is specific in where our love and faithfulness are first to be directed: toward God. The foremost element of a believer’s life is not obedience, not service, and not doctrine. These are important — indispensable, in fact. But they are not the priority. Love is. A passionate, vital, all-encompassing love that reaches to the depths of our being. When that is there, the rest is easy.

IN DEED:
Do you consider your heart to be a tablet? What is written on it? Do you realize that some things can be erased by the power of God, and others inscribed by that same power? It requires your full cooperation, but the junk that we’ve inscribed there — through all of the media & entertainment we absorb, the relationships we’ve had, the information we consume — can be rewritten. It can be replaced with love and faithfulness. In fact, it MUST be replaced with love and faithfulness if we are to learn the mind of God at all. This is who He is, and He insists that we become like Him. Love and faithfulness define Him. Do they define you? Let them saturate your heart.

“Put everything you have into the care of your heart, for it determines what your life amounts to.” -Dallas Willard-

March 10 – The Art of Casting (Psalm 55:16-23)

“Cast you cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”(Psalm 55:22)

IN WORD:
What does it mean to cast your cares on the Lord? We really need to know. It’s the difference between being sustained and faltering, between faith and fear. If we’re confused on this point, we will be riddled with anxieties and phobias, afraid to face the future and far from the will of God. If we understand, we can go through anything with peace in our hearts. Our circumstances may not be easy, but we can be brought through in the safety of His hand — if we learn what it means to cast our cares on Him.
Does it mean to offer up a prayer? Not necessarily. Many prayers have been uttered without a sense of peace. Praying does not guarantee internal rest. Our requests of God can be acts of anxiety rather than acts of faith. When we’re stressed, our prayers often even accuse Him of not keeping His Word. There’s more to casting cares than asking Him to help.
Does it mean to abandon any sense of responsibility because, after all, God will take care of it? Not at all. Casting cares on Him does not imply that we cease to care. It does not involve apathy in the least, and it is not an invitation to be irresponsible. No, casting our cares on God is much more purposeful than that. It is the most proactive thing we can do.

IN DEED:
It makes no sense to cast our cares on God and then take them up again. When we trust Him with our concerns, we ask Him to manage them. We acknowledge our own futility, and we rely on His power to resolve them. We actively watch, not ignorantly wait. We expectantly believe, not aggressively intervene. We act when He says to act and sit still when He says to sit. We obey His instructions because we know He’s in charge — and we’re comfortable with that. We can go to sleep at night knowing we can do nothing more effective than acknowledging His wisdom, power, love, and lordship. We can wake up without a single burden, because our burdens are on His shoulders. We refuse to micromanage. We will hope only in Him, because He is where our cares have been cast.

“Worry is an intrusion into God’s providence.” -John Haggai-

March 9 – When The Battle Rages (Psalm 55:16-23)

“He ransoms me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.”(Psalm 55:18)

IN WORD:
You have enemies. Perhaps you are aware of them, perhaps not. Either way, they are there, even if they are covertly operating underground without your knowledge. They may manifest themselves in people who have a grudge against you. Or they may simply be hidden in the systems of this corrupt world, with all of its false philosophies, ideologies, and temptations. And then there are the principalities of God’s archenemy who will harass, tempt, and discourage you. Sometimes your enemy is even your own flesh, the desires that compete with your allegiance to God.
If life has been a struggle, there’s a reason. The Kingdom of God that you crave is in conflict with the fallen world that you live in. You have welcomed the new while surrounded by the old. That does not make for a peaceful life.
Were you aware of this battle? If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that the Christian life, being supernatural, is not naturally easy. In fact, it’s impossible unless there’s a new birth, a constant faith, a learned dependence, and a holy ambition. Knowing the Holy Spirit is essential. Otherwise we are simply fallen creatures striving and wishing for something better.

IN DEED:
Don’t be discouraged by the fact that there is a battle in your life. There always will be until the day you pass from this earthen vessel into an incorruptible, heavenly dwelling place (2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The battle, in fact — if it is between the new and the old, the true and the false, or the gospel and the world — is evidence that you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
The battle comes with a promise: We are ransomed unharmed. It may not seem like we’re unharmed, but by God’s definition, we most certainly are. There is no enemy stronger than Him “who is enthroned forever” (Psalm 55:19). Your Savior reigns. Remember that when the battle is raging.

“Christianity is a battle, not a dream.” -Wendell Phillips-

March 8 – When Distress Reigns (Psalm 55:16-23)

“Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.”(Psalm 55:17)

IN WORD:
Problems can consume us. When trials strike, we can find ourselves completely preoccupied with how to deal with them. We obsess about their outcomes, and we strategize ways to run from them. We go to sleep thinking about them, and we wake up thinking about them. We think we cannot rest until they are resolved.
The context of this psalm of David is the treachery of a friend. Someone had betrayed him, and the betrayal caused others to oppose him. David felt surrounded, overwhelmed, discouraged, and defeated. We can relate. We have exactly the same reaction when life gets tough.
God hears. That’s comforting. It’s even more comforting when we consider other translations of this passage. “I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice” (NASB). Or “I utter my complaint and moan and sigh, and He will hear my voice” (AMP). The implication is that even when we whine & grumble, God still hears. He doesn’t necessarily like our complaining, perhaps, but He knows and is sensitive to our pain. His grace tolerates our attitudes. We don’t have a trial that God isn’t concerned with. We cannot stumble without evoking His compassion. We can’t be overwhelmed without His knowledge and without His appeal to cast it all on Him. Whatever we’re going through, God hears.

IN DEED:
We’ve all heard that before. For some of us it’s a reality, for others, just words. Some of us have heard that promise as often as we’ve heard that Jesus loves us, and though we know these things are true, we have grown numb to them. They just don’t sink in, and we aren’t affected.
Wake up to the fact that the almighty, overwhelming God is listening. Even when you complain, He cares. More than that, He hears with a plan to act. He is not passively listening, He is preparing to answer. Wouldn’t you love for Him to step into your situation? According to the Bible, He will. Watch & wait. Your distress is His concern.

“God will never permit any troubles to come upon us unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.” -Peter Marshall-