Tag Archive | lessons from Proverbs

Proverbs 28 – Confess and Turn away…

Jul22

Good evening y’all. Today we are studying Proverbs 28.

Be blessed 🙂

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Verse 9 and 13 stood out for me today.

“God has no use for the prayers of the people who won’t listen to him” (V9 MSG).

“People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy” (V13 NLT).

“You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them” (V13 MSG) .

God has no use of the prayer of someone who doesn’t obey him. Disobedience shows we do not love God and do not revere Him. We cant act and walk outside of His will and expect him to bless us and answer all our prayers. That’s just taking liberties.

I remember growing up, my mum used to tell us that if we are good and obedient kids, then she will buy us gifts or allow us go out to play for a while. some days i test my boundaries and i purposely disobey even though i have been warned ( i bet you did as well 🙂 ). Sometimes when i do this, mum would have mercy and still let me have the gift or go out to play, but 9 out of 10 times she doesn’t. On those occasion, I am usually so sad and wish i had just obeyed and didn’t take a gamble hoping she would still give the gift or allow me play outside.

I feel its a similar way with us and God. He has laid out instructions for us to obey and there are consequences when we disobey them. He has equipped us with all that we need to be able to live a godly life. Now its left to us to decide if we want to obey or not.

God can choose to answer our prayers even if we are disobedient, but is that a gamble we want to take. Its just like how i used to gamble hoping my mum would give me the gift even though i have disobeyed her instructions. God says “For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose” (Exo 33:19), but we shouldn’t take this for granted. What if God decides He is not showing mercy today? It is better to do the right thing than doing the wrong thing and hoping you will be lucky.

We are not perfect and at one point or the other we probably will disobey God. At that point we need to go back and confess our sins and not hide them or continue to wile away in them. Verse 13 tells us if we hide our sins we wont prosper, but if we confess and turn away from them we will find mercy. God is always ready to forgive us and take us back every time we make a mistake but we have to make the first step of going back to him and admitting we were wrong in the first place.

2 Chronicles 7:14 says: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (KJV).

Verse 13 didn’t end at confess your sins. It says we also have to turn away from them. We cant keep saying we are sorry and already plotting how we going to repeat the sin again. That’s not repentance!!!! 

Lets stop playing games with God. If we genuinely mean it, lets turn away completely from our sins. Grace is available to us today, all we need to do is tap into it.

Thanks for joining today. Pls feel free to share your thoughts on the chapter.

Have a blessed evening 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Proverbs 27 – Tomorrow I’ll do this and that….

Jul21

Good afternoon y’all. Today we are studying Proverbs 27.

Be blessed 🙂
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“Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth” (V1 NKJV).

“Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring” (V1 NLT).

No one knows what tomorrow will bring or be like, so it’s silly of us to start making promises or boast about tomorrow as if we own tomorrow. ‘Tomorrow I’ll do this, tomorrow I’ll do that..’: what if God decides He has a different plan for tomorrow? Have we forgotten that our God is the God of Providence?

I’m guilty of this most of the time but I have a friend who constantly reminds me it’s better to say, “if God wills it, I will do this and that”. It takes away the pride by reminding me that it’s only by God’s grace that I can do whatever I plan for tomorrow.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not saying we shouldn’t make plans or prepare for tomorrow. No.  I’m saying let’s have it at the back of our minds that, even as we plan, God is sovereign and He alone knows what tomorrow has in store for us. So let’s make plans while trusting that He will help us achieve them, if it’s His will for us.

James 4:13-16 gives a similar admonishment:
“Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil” (NLT).

I checked MHCC on this verse and I quite like how he has explained the verses. The commentary is quite long but I have extracted some below. You can read the full commentary by following the link. https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/Jas.4.11-Jas.4.17

“Observe here, 1. How apt worldly and projecting men are to leave God out of their schemes. Where any are set upon earthly things, these have a strange power of engrossing the thoughts of the heart. We should therefore have a care of growing intent or eager in our pursuits after any thing here below. 2. How much of worldly happiness lies in the promises men make to themselves beforehand. Their heads are full of fine visions, as to what they shall do, and be, and enjoy, in some future time, when they can neither be sure of time nor of any of the advantages they promise themselves; therefore observe, 3. How vain a thing it is to look for any thing good in futurity, without the concurrence of Providence.
What is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away, Jas. 4:14. God that wisely left us in the dark concerning future events, and even concerning the duration of life itself. We know not what shall be on the morrow; we may know what we intend to do and to be, but a thousand things may happen to prevent us. We are not sure of life itself, since it is but as a vapour, something in appearance, but nothing solid nor certain, easily scattered and gone. We can fix the hour and minute of the sun’s rising and setting to-morrow, but we cannot fix the certain time of a vapour’s being scattered; such is our life: it appears but for a little time, and then vanisheth away; it vanisheth as to this world, but there is a life that will continue in the other world; and, since this life is so uncertain, it concerns us all to prepare and lay up in store for that to come.
III. We are taught to keep up a constant sense of our dependence on the will of God for life, and all the actions and enjoyments of it: You ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that, Jas. 4:15. “You ought to say it in your hearts at all times, and with your tongues upon proper occasions, especially in your constant prayers and devotions, that if the Lord will give leave, and if he will own and bless you, you have such and such designs to accomplish.” We must remember that our times are not in our own hands, but at the disposal of God; we live as long as God appoints, and in the circumstances God appoints, and therefore must be submissive to him, even as to life itself; and then, 2. If the Lord will, we shall do this or that. All our actions and designs are under the control of Heaven. Our heads may be filled with cares and contrivances. This and the other thing we may propose to do for ourselves, or our families, or our friends; but Providence sometimes breaks all our measures, and throws our schemes into confusion. Therefore both our counsels for action and our conduct in action should be entirely referred to God; all we design and all we do should be with a submissive dependence on God”. (Matthew Henry’s commentary)

Thanks for joining today. Pls feel free to share your thoughts on the chapter.

Have a blessed day 🙂

***With God all things are possible***