Tag Archive | lessons from Proverbs

Proverbs 2 – Tune your ears and apply your hearts

Jun16

Good afternoon y’all. Today we continue our study of the book of Proverbs. We will be looking at chapter 2.

I will concentrate on the first 6 verses of the chapter

Be blessed 🙂

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Verse 1

“My child, listen to what I say,
    and treasure my commands”. (NLT)

The first step in walking and living in wisdom is to receive and store up God’s word within us. Not just receive but apply it to our lives. God’s word ought to be the ONLY and FINAL authority in our lives. We should hide it in our hearts and meditate on it constantly, for in it we find hidden treasures and secrets. The more of God’s word we have stored up in us, the more we become like Him in our conduct and speech. The word of God has power to transform and renew us.

Do we receive God’s word? Do we accept it is relevant to us and written for us?  Do we value it above other ?

King David, who happened to be the father of the writer of proverbs understood the importance of God’s word. He treasured it and took delight in not just reading but obeying it. He understood that all the wisdom, understanding and knowledge he needed is found in the Word.

“I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you”. (Ps 119: 11 NLT)

“I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word”. (Ps 119: 16 NKJV)

Verse 2

“Tune your ears to wisdom,
    and concentrate on understanding”(NLT)

“So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding” (NKJV)

This tells me that we have the ability tune what we listen to. There are times I’m in a gathering and I tune out of the conversations even though I’m present, but don’t actually hear any of the conversations going on cos I have tuned my ears out not to listen to anything being said. In the same way, we are encouraged in verse 2 to make sure we only tune our ears to wisdom, not just any wisdom but godly wisdom. Our ears and our eyes are the gateway to our heart (Soul, Mind) so we have to be careful what goes into our ears. We need to master the art of selective hearing….only listen to those things that please God and will build up our inner man. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10: 17). Hearing is key and we have to be careful what we hear. It can either build up our faith or build up fear in us.

‘To apply’ according to google means “to give one’s full attention to a task; work hard”. This means we should give full attention in our hearts to understanding.  We should concentrate on feeding our hearts with Gods word. The more we do this, the more our character will reflect God. We will find its much easier to live a godly life and be pleasing to God.

Are we tuning our ears to wisdom and applying our hearts to understanding?

Verse 3 and 4

“Cry out for insight,
    and ask for understanding.
Search for them as you would for silver;
    seek them like hidden treasures”(NLT)

Getting insight and understanding should be very important and precious to us. We should pursue it with diligence, focus and dedication in the same manner we purse our worldly goals.
God is willing to give us wisdom but we have to ask for it. James tells us we have not because we haven’t asked for it.
“…Yet[a] you do not have because you do not ask”.(James 4:2 NKJV)

Verse 5 and 6

“Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
    and you will gain knowledge of God.
For the Lord grants wisdom!
    From his mouth come knowledge and understanding” ( NLT)

When we ask and seek earnestly for God’s wisdom, we will find Him. The only way we can know His mind is by spending time diligently and earnestly searching through His word.

Our part is to seek and search earnestly, God’s part is His promise that we will find Him. He is the one who gives wisdom. It belongs to him. When we ask we can be rest assured that He will answer us.

James tells us if any lacks wisdom to ask God and Matthew tells us when we ask we will receive.

“If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him; he will not resent it”. (James 1:5 TLB)

“Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened”. (Matthew 7:7 TLB)

Prayer
Dear Lord we thank You for today and for Your Word. Help us to listen to You and treasure your commands. Help us tune our ears to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding so we may understand what it means to fear You and gain knowledge of You. Thank you dear Lord. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen

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

I am blogging through the bible with Good morning girls. Check us out at www.goodmorninggirls.org

Have a blessed day 🙂

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

Proverbs 1 – Start with God….

Jun15

Good morning y’all. Welcome back from our summer break 🙂

Today we begin our study of Proverbs. I’m excited to see what God has in store for us.

For those joining the blogs for the 1st time, I’m blogging through the bible with Good Morning Girls. You can check out the group at www.goodmorninggirls.org.

We are studying chapter 1 today. The chapter is divided into sections. The 1st 6 verses tells us the benefits of Proverbs. Verses 7-19 tells us the beginning of wisdom and to stay away from evil counsel. Verses 20 – 33 tells us what happens to the one who refuses to heed the call of wisdom.

Be blessed 🙂

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I will start with the benefits of reading Proverbs. According to verse 3 -6, Proverbs can:

– Teach us how to live intelligently
– Teach us how to be honest, just and fair
– Make us clever
– Make us resourceful
– Add to our existing knowledge
– Give us guidance

I sure want all of that!!! If you do as well, then you are in the right place 🙂 . These are all the benefits we can get from reading this book in the bible.

So where does it all start from? According to verse 7, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. In the message version this says

“Start with God —the first step in learning is bowing down to God ; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning”. (Pro.1:7 MSG)

Our starting point is God. Learning to humble and reverence Him is where wisdom, understanding and knowledge begins.

Another version says “respect and obey the Lord. This is the beginning of knowledge”. (CEVUS06)

The latter part of verse 7 tells us fools despise wisdom and discipline. It’s a fool that will always think he knows it all and doesn’t need to learn from any other person including God Almighty – the one who knows the end from the beginning. Why won’t you want to learn from Him?

Verse 19 in the NLT version struck me.
“Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life”. (Pro 1:19 NLT)

This is so true. It’s like we are never content…constantly wanting more and in the process forget to enjoy what we already have. Let’s stop chasing after temporal things that won’t last rather let’s chase after things of eternal value. It’s good to have money no doubt, but we mustn’t let our quest for money take control of our lives that we become slaves to the money. We are meant to master money and not money master us!

Refusing to learn from God only sets us up for failure and rejection. How can the creation say to the creator I know more than you do? Verse 28 – 30 says
“When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord . They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them”. (Pro.1:28-30 NLT)

God is inviting us to come learn from Him. He is understanding, He is wisdom and He is knowledge. His way is the only sure way we can live a safe and peaceful life. Let’s heed His call

“But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.” (Pro.1:33.NLT)

I pray we all make the right choice today.

Thank you for joining.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on the chapter 🙂

Have a blessed day 🙂

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