The Proverbs are, in many cases, fairly self explanatory. Don’t be lazy, don’t be a wicked ruler, don’t be foolish but be wise, be a righteous ruler, be diligent in your work. Each Proverb has it’s own meaning but they go along those lines. But some are not so self explanatory. They are counterintuitive.
A short example is found in 28:27. If you want to be prosperous and blessed, to never be in want, then we give our money to the poor. The world, our own sinful heads, and many economists believe that the way to grow our wealth and not be in want is to hoard our money. But that’s not the way God works. It is only in generosity and giving that we will be blessed. This comes from the fact that God will bless and many times he blesses us through the care of others in our time of struggle and hardship.
Also, 27:5-6 doesn’t seem to be true in the moment. I don’t like to be rebuked. I don’t like it when a friend calls me out on the garbage way I am acting. But the Proverb teaches us that we should delight when a friend rebukes us because their correction comes from a place of love and they want our life to be one of wisdom and righteousness. This is especially true for our brothers and sisters in our local church. Many times, we may feel judged by the people of our church, but more often than not, they are wanting the BEST for us. The “wounds” they give are better than any kisses of those who tell us we have nothing wrong with us. There could be people who act like a friend and hurt you in terrible ways, but here we mean TRUE friendship, TRUE companionship, TRUE love from a brother or sister in Christ. That true love is shown in forgiveness and compassion, especially in our moments of weakness and humility. Many times, when we are sinning and are fearing the rebuke of those people, we hide our sin away, like 28:13 says. But counterintuitively, by hiding our sins, we only hurt ourselves more when they are brought to light in some other way. We need to confess our sins and turn away from them. When we do, compassion and forgiveness are waiting for us from the people of God and from God himself.
Jake Ballard
(originally posted for SeekGrowLove June 17, 2020)
Reflection Questions
What other proverbs have you run across that seem counterintuitive and the opposite of how the world thinks or operates? How is God’s wisdom better than the world’s?
Can you think of a time a true friend gave you correction or a rebuke? Can you think of a time you, as a true friend, gave correction or rebuke? What is the value of correcting a friend? What problems can develop if we don’t correct in love, or if we don’t accept the correction given in true love?
Our God is a God of restoration. There will ultimately be a full restoration, but full restoration can only happen when the world is once again the beautiful, perfect place God created it to be, when His Kingdom is established on earth. Partial restoration, however, has been happening ever since the beginning of time. We read about restoration countless times in the Bible, and if you look, you can see it in our lives today, too. God constantly restores what has been lost to His people, whether it be a physical ability, such as sight, or movement, or a spiritual restoration, such as that of faith, or even the restoration of life.
Today, we read in 2 Kings chapter 8 about a Shunammite woman who lost everything she had during a 7 year famine, but because of her faith in God and willingness to obey, it was restored to her. Now this woman was not new to witnessing God’s ability to restore what was lost. In chapter 4 of 2 Kings, we read about how Elisha rewarded the Shunammite woman’s kindness with fertility, and she bore a son. Sadly, the son later died, but she had faith in God’s power, so she sought out Elisha. Elisha came, and the son was brought back to life; he was restored.
It is clear that this woman had remarkable faith. Perhaps this is why Elisha warned her about the famine that would come on the land for 7 long years, and advised her to leave. So without question, she and her household left their home and stayed in the land of the Philistines for 7 years, until the famine was over. When they returned, she had to appeal to the king to get back her home and all her land. The crazy thing is, right as she was coming to appeal to the king, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, (who in chapter 5 was cursed with leprosy, and left Elisha… so perhaps these chapters are not necessarily in chronological order) was telling him the unbelievable story of the miracle Elisha performed in the resurrection of the son of the Shunammite woman. The woman, who just happened to show up during this particular story time, also gave an account of what happened, and the King was so impressed that he instantly granted her the land and all that she left 7 years ago.
This story speaks volumes of God’s perfect timing, and adds to the common theme we see throughout the Bible of God’s willingness to restore what has been lost to those who are faithful. Look closely at the different ways in which God restores things in your life, and let it remind you to live everyday for the ultimate restoration that’s coming.
-Isabella Osborn
(originally posted for SeekGrowLove on June 8, 2021)
Reflection Questions
In 2 Kings 8 what does God do for restoration to take place? What did the Shunammite woman do? What did others do?
Where have you seen restoration? Did faith play a part in the restoration you witnessed? What did God do? What did the recipient of the restoration do? What did others do?
How can you be a part of God’s great restoration project? What restoration can you be praying for? What restoration can you be working towards, with faith in God, that He will act in amazing, restorative ways?
Reading today’s passage in Luke 8, I was surprised at how many incredible stories of Jesus are packed into just one chapter. It really shows the power that Jesus holds. He preaches messages to large crowds, he calms the storm, and heals a sick woman just from being touched. There are even multiple accounts of people being cured of evil spirits. Additionally, we even get to hear the miraculous resurrection of Jairus’ daughter. Jesus’ power is stronger than the ties of death. A common theme among these stories is the presence of faith or the lack thereof. Jesus asks his disciples, “Where is your faith” when they were scared and stuck in a storm. Some would point to Jesus’ ability to give commands to the winds and the waves and his power over death as evidence that Jesus is greater than who he says he is. But when we look at other accounts in the Bible of God using men to do his work and will, we can easily see that God is powerful enough to work through humans. Our reading today in 2 Kings 5 tells the story of Elisha performing a miracle through the power of God and healing a man of leprosy. There are many other examples of great miracles that could only be through the hand of God, such as in 1 Kings 17 when Elijah raised the widow’s son.
God is omnipotent and His power is not diminished when He works through humans. This same idea also extends to the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross covers the atonement for the sins of the entire world. How can this be since Jesus is a man? Through the power of God. This was part of God’s plan of salvation. Since sin and death came through a man (Adam), life and righteousness also come from a man (Jesus). Jesus could not have done it on his own accord- but through the power of God his sacrifice was sufficient. Therefore, it has nothing to do with Jesus’ qualifications and everything to do with the qualifications of God. This is great news for us because it means that God can use us in unimaginable ways because our God is greater and more powerful than we would be able to accomplish on our own and is waiting to use us when we offer ourselves to him.
Throughout the Gospels we can see the faithfulness Jesus shows to God. This is an important step to being used by God. Luke chapter 8 shows the importance of having faith. Jairus’ daughter was raised WHEN Jairus had the faith that Jesus could do it, the woman who was sick was healed WHEN she had the faith that touching Jesus would be enough. We can even see that the demons had faith in Jesus that he could command them to leave the man. The demons even acknowledge who Jesus is and recognizes that Jesus gets his power from the Most High.
Not only do we need to have our faith in God but we also need to be close to him and have a relationship with God. The parable of the sower likewise teaches us how a firm foundation in God keeps us rooted in God and His ways. We can believe in God for a time but if we are not continually seeking Him then we will not be listening for God when He tries to use us to accomplish His work.
-Makayla Railton
Questions:
Have you been building your firm foundation on God so that you can withstand life’s temptations and troubles and still be rooted in God?
Do you feel like you are waiting for God to qualify you before He can use you? Whose power are you relying on?
You are a powerful man in ancient Israel. You hear about a miracle worker and rabbi. This guy, in just the last couple days reportedly saved a slave of some centurion without even being near him. More than that, he brought the dead back to life! Could such a thing be? Nothing like it has happened in your lifetime. This man reminds you of Moses, Elijah, and the prophets that you have grown up hearing about and spent your life studying. You know that such a man must be holy, must be from God. You invite this man to eat with you, so you can see for yourself how this holy, miraculous man interacts with people.
So you see him. And he’s shorter than you expected. Actually, he’s quite unremarkable in appearance. He is not wealthy, he does not come from money or make much when out teaching. He is lean from walking and fasting. He has an entourage of men with thick accents, no training, and a certain lack of decorum. They look and act like fishermen. To your surprise, you learn they ARE fishermen. One is even a tax collector. It’s only natural to begin to doubt. But when he opens his mouth to teach, it intrigues you. The passion with which he speaks. The intensity in his eyes. The compassion in his touch, to all people, draws you in, and you invite him over for dinner. Doubts gnaw at your mind, but surely in a personal setting those will fall away.
However, at dinner, things get really out of hand. As per usual, you have your home open to use by the people of the city, because God has blessed you for your devote life and upright character. Everyone, all thirteen (and more) of this teacher’s usual crew start to relax, kick back their feet, and eat. But, in the middle of dinner, she comes in. The years of hard life, of acting in such impolite, anti-social, uncouth, wicked and sinful ways, of trying and failing to do better, showed in every movement in the presence of this teacher. But instead of running like she should have, she bends down, weeping, and cries on his feet, wipes his feet clean with her tears. She takes his barely washed feet and anoints them with the sweetest perfume, the smell wafting over you all. She is making a scene, at YOUR dinner. And you know what kind of person she is. She doesn’t deserve this attention, she only wants to ruin your hospitality, because that’s the kind of person she is.
No, no this man must be a phony. How could a man who raises the dead not know what this woman does every day? How could such a “holy man” allow so much uncleanness to caress his feet? Why let someone like her defile someone like him?
Then he says your name and breaks you out of your reverie. He calls your name. He tells you about two debtors, both forgiven – one much and one little. He asks “Who will love the forgiver more?”
“The one who was forgiven much,” you answer wisely.
He turns to the woman and takes her worried, nervous, anxious trembling hands in his own. He turns his soft but piercing eyes to her own, red from weeping. He says to you, “Do you see this woman?” He lets the words hang in silence for a moment. She rubs her nose. For the first time you notice that some of her hair is starting to turn gray. You notice that she is not old, but the lines come from stress. You notice that she must have washed to come, as she looks cleaner than you have seen her in a long time… You see yourself seeing this woman, who you see everyday, in a new way. She is a whole person. She is more than the sum of her mistakes. She is loving this teacher. She is showing him honors “She has done for me what you have not,” he says. “She has much to be forgiven for, and so she loves, knowing now that she is forgiven. In your own eyes, your sins are so much smaller, and so your love is so much less.”
The rest of the table murmurs about the teacher forgiving sins, but as they talk he says to the woman “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” She smiles at him with gratitude and joy…
Do you see this woman?
Or do you see the sins? The immorality? The wickedness? The hardness of life? The addictions? The abuse?
Jesus opened the eyes of the blind, and more importantly, causes the spiritually blind to see the world. May this imaging open your eyes. This man who raised up the dead, more importantly, raised up the living to new life. May this story cause you to raise the living to new life.
And may this question reverberate in your head all day :
Do you see this woman?
(Optional note for those confused about the devotion : spiritual imagining, putting ourselves in the story, is an ancient spiritual tradition. One great example that is often used is in Luke 15, the parable of the “Lost/Prodigal Son”, or better “The Lost Sons” or best “The Searching/Prodigal Father”. You may see yourself as the son who runs off, the servants rejoicing, the son who is angry for forgiveness, or the father looking for his boys. It says much about ourselves and our relationship with God and others to see who we identify with, and to put ourselves in strange places in the story. Today we looked through Simon’s eyes in Luke 7, not because it is the best, but because of course he would doubt Jesus. Of course he would question him. Of course he would be offended at the woman. And of course, all of that is undue, because Jesus overcomes our doubts through miracles, our questions through answers and better questions, and our offense by unending grace. May this story take a new meaning to you as you ask yourself: Do you see this woman?)
-Jacob Ballard
(originally posted for SeekGrowLove March 16, 2021)
Reflection Questions
Would you more often see yourself as the sinful woman or as Simon the Pharisee?
What do each of these 2 characters need?
Jesus initiates the discussion with Simon after Simon had just “said to himself”. What recent thoughts of yours might Jesus question if he were in your house today? What do you think he would ask/say/explain to counter your thoughts?
In Luke 7:1-10 we find the story of the centurion’s servant. The centurion was a conqueror and a foreigner, but despite this we find that he is a God fearing man who supports the Jews by building a synagogue for them. He has a servant who is dying so he sends messengers to Jesus to have Jesus heal the servant. He shows great humility and faith in Jesus through his actions and the servant is healed because of his great faith. Faith unequalled in all of Israel according to Jesus.
I think there are a couple of important lessons in this.
First, maybe you are like the centurion, maybe you didn’t grow up in the church and are a new believer, and maybe you are looking at Christianity from the outside and wondering if you can even be a part of this community. Of course you can! Salvation and God’s work in the world is based on faith, not upbringing or culture or works. So don’t worry about your past, because God can work powerfully in your life no matter what is in your past!
Second, maybe you are like the Israelites in this story, you grew up in church or have been a Christian for a while and are maturing in your walk with God. I think for you this story has an encouragement and a warning. I encourage you to be like the Jewish people that the centurion sent to Jesus that were able to see past the fact that the centurion was a foreigner and conqueror and see the faith he had and to then recommend that Jesus help him. We should always be ready to welcome new believers based on their faith, and not judging them the way the world might judge them.
I also warn you to not be complacent or lukewarm like much of the Jewish community was when Jesus was with them. Jesus said that this centurion had more faith than any other in Israel. Many in Israel missed out on being healed and having their sins forgiven in Israel because they were out of tune with God and were not able to see when he was moving. I encourage you to be disciplined in your prayer life and in reading the scriptures so that your relationship with God will not grow stale.
-Chris Mattison
(originally posted Dec 10, 2017)
Reflection Questions
What healings (physical and/or spiritual) have you witnessed?
What do you think Jesus found most amazing about the faith of the centurion?
Would Jesus find anything amazing about your faith? How can you work at growing your faith?
Today is our final look at Proverbs for the week. We have looked at these Proverbs as wisdom that leads to greater flourishing. In today’s Proverb there is a strong theme around our attitudes to the poor. If you know anything about King Solomon, he was the wealthiest man in all of Israel. He lived in a palace, had armies and servants in abundance and was the envy of other world leaders. There’s even a story in the Bible about the Queen of a place called Sheba who traveled to Israel just to see for herself how magnificent Solomon’s Kingdom was.
As wealthy as Solomon was, he also recognized that wealth could be dangerous and lead to pride which can do great spiritual damage to a person. Solomon cautiously warns his readers not to look down on people who are poor or to take advantage of the poor.
The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all. (Proverbs 22:2).
Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. (22:9).
Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. (22:18).
Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them. (22-23).
Solomon gives some heavy-duty warning here. Many cultures throughout human history have looked down on the poor or otherwise economically challenged. In some cultures, the Hindu culture of India, they believe that poverty is simply Karma, the poor person is being punished for sins committed in a previous life (they believe in reincarnation of the dead, rather than sleeping till resurrection as the Bible consistently teaches). So that poor person is poor because they are bad. You can see how this attitude might breed a certain attitude of superiority. They are poor because they deserve it. On the other side, many think, I am rich because I am being rewarded for being a good person. In actual fact, more often than not the reverse is true. Many very poor people are actually very caring and loving people. Their poverty has nothing to do with their character or their sins. Poverty has many causes. There are all kinds of factors in society that can affect a person’s ability to acquire wealth or even a subsistence level of economic resources.
Consider a community where most laborers work in a factory. In some cases, several generations of their family worked in that same factory. What happens when suddenly the new CEO of the company decides that the shareholders will make more money if they can cut manufacturing costs by outsourcing production to a country with much lower labor costs. They can produce the same goods at lower production costs and sell them for the same amount resulting in greater profits and more dividends for the shareholders, and a nice healthy bonus for the CEO. Everybody wins, right? Wrong. The people who worked at the factory for 30 years suddenly find themselves unemployed. How will they feed their families? What happens to the town when suddenly a large part of the population are unemployed? I think you get my point. Suddenly you have poor people who are now poor through no fault of their own. They are victims of the wealthy people who are now even wealthier at their expense.
In our society, it is tempting to look at those kinds of situations as the result of our system but trusting that the system will balance itself out. But does it really? Now, don’t misunderstand me, I’m not advocating for communism or socialism as a better alternative to capitalism, but we must acknowledge that there is a moral component to wealth and we should not blind ourselves to the reality that there are systemic elements in society that do contribute to poverty and we need to be aware and mindful of ways that we contribute to that.
It is easy to look at poor people and blame them for ‘being too lazy’ or ‘on drugs.’ Sometimes that is no doubt true. But we don’t necessarily know that. We don’t know how lack of educational opportunities, racial inequalities, generational poverty and many other factors may be contributing to their situation. Sometimes substance abuse is the cause of poverty, but other times it is a symptom of one who has lost all hope for economic success and has given in to apathy and hopelessness and now is self-medicating. Poverty can also come as a result of mental illness. Many unhoused persons suffer from severe mental illness and most states lack sufficient resources to treat and support them, so they end up living lives of unmitigated poverty and misery.
Mindlessly throwing money at problems is not the solution, but neither is blame or even worse, intentionally taking advantage of the poor to make ourselves richer. Every day I get spam calls and texts from people who are phishing for my data so that they can access my bank account and take my money. They often target elderly people, try to scare them, or confuse them into sharing their personal information, so they can steal from them. In the same way, a predatory lion will look for the weakest gazelle in the herd to take down, predatory people often do the same. Solomon knew back then how the poor were often victimized by the predatory rich and he warned against it. Not much has changed.
When Jesus says that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, he includes the poor. The person who wants to flourish spiritually will be intentional in how they treat everyone, especially those who are economically challenged and most vulnerable.
~ Jeff Fletcher
QUESTIONS:
What is your attitude to the poor? How does this translate into action?
Why does God care about the poor?
How does taking care of the poor relate to justice? How does it relate to wisdom?
Vs. 23. Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.
At the beginning of the movie, Blindside, the narrator explains the role of the offensive line and one position in particular, the left guard. Her explanation goes something like this: “When a woman is paying the household bills, the first check she writes is to pay the mortgage, the second check is to pay the insurance.” The meaning: you want to ensure you have your greatest financial asset, your house so you pay the mortgage, and you want to make sure that your asset is protected, so you make sure your insurance premium is up to date. That all makes logical sense. As it is applied to football, you first make sure that you have a great quarterback to run the offense, and second, you want to make sure that your quarterback is well-protected, so you invest in a very good left guard to watch and guard the quarterback’s blindside.
Solomon, of course, knows nothing of football. In his world, as king of Israel most of the work that he accomplishes is with his mouth. When he as King utters a decree, it becomes law. As King, his words matter. The King’s words have the power of life and death. In some ways, the King’s authority is exercised by his words, they are powerful and effective. In some ways, they are very similar to God’s Word, which the Bible also says is powerful and effective. In Genesis 1 God speaks His word and the heavens and earth are formed.
So Solomon understands the power of our words. In Proverbs, he emphasizes the importance of protecting the source of our words, our tongue. “Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.” (Proverbs 21:23). If your tongue is the quarterback, you need to invest in good protection, a good guard. That is putting knowledge into practice, that is wisdom.
Practically speaking, think of all the ways that an unguarded tongue can get a person into trouble: lying, gossip, slander, and cursing are just a few examples of trouble that comes courtesy of an unwisely guarded tongue. Lying can get you in trouble with your parents, with your husband or wife if married, with your boss, with your friends and with God. That’s a lot of trouble. People usually tell lies to try to keep out of trouble, but often it backfires and they get into more trouble. Lie to a police officer and you won’t only get into trouble for whatever you did, but then you’ll have extra trouble for lying about it. There’s a reason that when arrested they say “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say will be used against you.” What that means is, you’re better off just keeping your mouth shut then to tell a lie to try to cover up. Even if you are innocent of the charge, you can still get yourself into trouble by what you say. Please not, I’m not advocating for you to commit crimes and tell you how to avoid jail, but simply showing the wisdom of guarding your tongue. Think before you speak.
In this age of social media, guarding your tongue takes on greater meaning. With social media, our words can go farther faster and last longer. I have heard of incidents of people not being hired for a job they were otherwise qualified for because the prospective employer looked at their social media feed and saw objectionable content from years earlier. I’ve heard of people losing jobs because of their words. Unguarded words can be very costly. They can cost not only jobs; they can cost relationships.
Solomon wisely counsels that in many situations it is far wiser to say nothing at all. Proverbs 17:28 says: “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” An old adage attributed to Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln (but probably someone different) says “It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
Words have heavy spiritual consequences as well. Ecclesiastes 5:2 says: “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” Think about the promises that you make to other people, and think harder about the promises you make to God. For instance, when you are baptized, you promise to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior be faithful to him and follow him. That’s a very strong promise. A disturbingly large number of people who used to go to church faithfully are dropping out of the church, and many no longer identify as Christian, they are joining the swelling ranks of so-called “nones” or people with no religious affiliation. That’s a lot of people who made promises to God who are no longer keeping those promises. But good news: God is very forgiving and welcoming to those who repent, turn back to Him. Still, think about any promises you make with your mouth before God. Whether it’s to faithfully follow Jesus Christ, be faithful to a wife or husband, commit to serve in a ministry, don’t be quick to make a promise that you don’t really intend to keep.
In short, your words really do matter, so a spiritually wise person needs to “think before you speak.” So be sure to guard your tongue the way a left guard protects his quarterback. That’s a key to spiritual victory in life, that is a way towards true flourishing.
~ Jeff Fletcher
QUESTIONS:
What power do words have? Have you ever been greatly hurt by words? What about greatly encouraged?
Why is it always better to tell the truth rather than lies?
How can you cultivate your ‘word filter’? How can you practice thinking before you speak?
I have had a few different titles and roles in my life, pastor, reverend, spiritual director, chaplain, doctor. Of all of them, the one that I am most proud is Dad/Papa/Grandpa. If you do not know me from Adam, I have eleven children, six sons/daughters in law, and fifteen, soon to be sixteen grandchildren. Along with my wife Karen who I talked about earlier this week, these are my greatest loves and joys on this whole earth. One of Proverbs we looked at earlier this week included the following: “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.” (Proverbs 17:6). This speaks of the importance of our families to our lives.
In today’s Proverb, I want to look at verse 7, which also speaks of the importance of family: “The righteous who walks in his integrity—blessed are his children after him!” (Proverbs 20:7). Growing up in the United States I have been exposed to important words like freedom. As a person who has spent the majority of my life in more conservative institutions I have been surrounded by ideas of “rugged individualism.” Since the emergence of neoliberalism in the 1970’s there has been this ongoing emphasis of personal responsibility. I grew up when the threat of Communist expansion was at a high point. Being surrounded by that cultural mindset it is easy to drift over into hyper-individualism. But is this what the Bible teaches?
There is a sense in which ultimately we are all responsible for the decisions that we make in life. If I make the decision to sin, I am the one who is answerable to God for my sin. I can’t say “it was my parents’ fault” or “it was my wife’s fault”. If you go back to the beginning of the Bible and the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, you can see how quick everyone was to try to shift the blame onto someone else. Adam famously tried to blame Eve, (or was he really blaming God?) “This woman that you made, she gave me the fruit”. The woman in turn blamed the serpent. God was having none of it.
A clear spiritual principle of the Bible is- each individual is accountable for their sins. Ezekiel 18:19-20 spells it out in very clear terms: “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
You could have the most wonderful, godly, spiritual parents in the world, but you do not automatically get to ride their coattails into the Kingdom of God. Once you reach a place of accountability, you alone are responsible for your commitment to follow Jesus Christ, or not. There are no legacy Christians. At the opposite extreme, you might have had the worst parents in all the world and suffered abuse or deprivation, maybe they never taught you about God or brought you to Sunday School or Vacation Bible School. You are still responsible when you grow to maturity. There are many people who came from terrible childhoods with not good parental spiritual support who meet Jesus Christ and allow him to transform their lives. From a spiritual/legal accountability standpoint, you are ultimately responsible for your sins and accepting Jesus Christ and following him.
Having said all of that, let me also say that we do NOT live only for ourselves. All of my children are now adults and they are accountable to God, but as a parent, I am accountable to God for how I parent my children. This was a clear principle give to God’s people, Israel from a very early time. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Parents are instructed by God to diligently instruct their children in the teachings of God.
It became fashionable in the 1960’s in America for parents to say “I’m not going to impose my religious faith and values on my children. I’ll let them decide for themselves.” That is one of the stupidest ideas in the history of ideas. The world is constantly trying to impose its values on children. It begins with some of the baby books designed to be read to babies and toddlers, children’s television shows, childhood education in schools, social media, the music and entertainment industry, advertising, their peers etc…Everyone tries to impose their values on children, especially those who try to tell parents not to impose their values on children. God says to parents, you have got to start indoctrinating (aka teaching good doctrine to) your children with God’s teaching from the time they are small. Talk about God and God’s teachings to your children all day long.
I’m writing to some of you who are now or soon expect to be parents, and even for you younger ones, file this away so that if you do become a parent you will remember it. How you live your life and how faithfully you teach your children will have a major influence on them. Proverbs 22:6 says that we should “train up a child in the way he (she) should go”. Should is a word that contains judgment. You need to decide what is right and wrong in God’s word and you need to train your child to adopt those same values. There is no 100% guarantee that you will be successful and that your children will choose to follow your training and God’s Word when they grow up, but you can do all that is in your power to set them up for success.
I was blessed with a mother and father who loved God, brought me to Church throughout my childhood, practiced prayer in the home and demonstrated their faith in God and taught me to do the same. Were they perfect? No, no parent is. But they helped to prepare me to choose to live a life of faith as an adult. Did I have failures and setbacks in living as a follower of Jesus. Absolutely. I am 100% responsible for my sinful choices both as a teenager and now as a 60-year-old man. But I have been the blessed recipient of having had parents of faith. I have tried to pass along those benefits to my children. Was I a perfect Dad? Are you kidding? I have eleven eyewitnesses who could tell you stories about some of the stupid and sinful stuff that their dad has done. (Good thing they have a really good mom). And yet, I hope that I was able to teach and model faith to my children diligently, and continue to try to live out my faith today (I think I’ve gotten a little better at figuring out how to be a good dad as I’ve gotten older). Now, some of them are parents and having to navigate the same thing in their lives. Now they are responsible for how they parent their children.
Sorry, but when you stand before the Lord, you can’t blame your parents for your sinful choices, you are responsible. You are also responsible for how you parent any children God gives you, and you can help to better set them up for spiritual success by teaching them diligently God’s Word, until the time that they themselves are accountable to God. Faith is learned and lived in a community. We are responsible for how we live it in our families, in our churches, and in our world.
~ Jeff Fletcher
QUESTIONS:
How have your parents influenced you to follow (or not follow) God?
What values do you want to pass on to your current or future children?
What responsibility do parents have to pass on their faith to their children?
How can you prepare yourself to pass on this faith well to the next generation?
Have you ever seen a sloth in the zoo or on tv? Baby sloths are so cute. Sloths live in Central and South America and spend their lives “hanging around” in trees. About once a week they climb down from the tree and go to the bathroom, then they slowly climb back up again. Sloths name means literally “lazy”. This is because they are some of the slowest creatures on earth. The avg. land speed of a sloth is 9 feet per minute. That is roughly .1 mph. I mean, I am a slow old man, but even I could win a foot race with a sloth.
The word, sloth or slothful means lazy or indolent. The slothful person fails to engage life in a meaningful way. They are essentially withholding energy or effort to do the things that need to be done. Proverbs 19:15 points out this truth about the danger of sloth: “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.” Slothfulness is essentially falling asleep to life. The consequences of sloth or laziness can be life-limiting. So, Solomon warns the reader that the wise person who wants to live a flourishing life as God has designed will pay careful attention to the times when laziness gains control of their lives.
Now, let us pause for a moment. Human beings were not created to work non-stop. Workaholism is not health to our bodies, our minds, or our relationships with others and with God. We all know people who seem like they are never able to stop working, relax, enjoy time with family and friends. We know people who are too “busy” to God to Church, pray, read their Bibles, visit a friend who needs support or just appreciate all the gifts of life.
God created us to be human beings, not human doings. God built into creation a certain rhythm and flow to life. Human beings need sleep. It is a biological imperative. You “have” to sleep in order to live. In the same way, God built into creation the need to not only sleep, but to cease productive activities, to rest from work. God said it is necessary to take one day of the week to “cease” working. He called this Shabbat/Sabbath which means literally, to cease. Solomon is not here prescribing workaholism. In fact elsewhere in the Bible it says: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:2).
But just as it is bad to work all the time and never get rest, it is equally bad to be perpetually slothful and not do the work you need to do. Back to Proverbs 19 Solomon says: “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.” Here Solomon introduces another term “sluggard”. A slug is a tiny shellless gastropod. It is a snail without a shell. They hang around your garden all day munching on your vegetables. Like the sloth, they also do not move very much. A sluggard is essentially a person who is habitually lazy. In Solomon’s example this person is so lazy that they can’t even do the simple task or moving their food from their dish to their mouth so they can eat… and live.
In short, Solomon wants us to understand that the wise person who will flourish in life as God designed will not be perpetually lazy. You have things that you need to do to live a good and flourishing life. If you want to reap a harvest in the Fall you must first do the work of planting the seeds in the Spring. If you are too lazy to plant, to weed, to harvest, then you won’t have a flourishing garden, and you personally won’t flourish.
Important note: you can be busy and active doing stuff and still be slothful about what is truly important. If you have ever sat down with your laptop to work, and three hours later realized that you have been on your computer for three hours and haven’t gotten any work done, but you’re all caught up on your social media and binge watched several episodes of your favorite show on Netflix, you know that you can be doing activities when you planned to do work. The world is full of distractions. And human beings are easily bored.
Part of sloth is not being able to focus on what you really need to be doing in the moment. Many times in my life I have found myself procrastinating on a task that I needed to do, but instead reorganized my sock drawer, rearranged my shirts by color and researched and planned my next vacation. It is easy to get distracted away from important but unpleasant or difficult tasks by the low hanging fruit of something easy. Do not get me wrong, we all do this once in a while and It is certainly okay at times to say, “I Do not have the mental energy at this moment to tackle that task.” It is when it becomes habitual, when we become habitually slothful about important things that the real danger becomes apparent.
Now, finally, I must say that sometimes people have underlying health issues that reduce their energy. For some people, sloth can be a response to trauma, a sign of clinical depression or other mental health concerns. If you detect lethargy in your life, it might not be a character flaw, it might be a sign of a health concern, so get health. Do not ignore sloth. It could be a sign of a spiritual problem. The ancient Church used the term “acedia” as a kind of substitute for sloth. Acedia means literally, without care. Acedia is a kind of apathy, you just do not care any more- which can be a kind of spiritual depression and it can impact our relationship with God. Do not ignore sloth: it could be a sign of a physical problem. See a doctor and get it checked out. Do not ignore sloth: it could be a sign of an undiagnosed mental health issue, get it checked out. Do not ignore sloth: it could be a bad habit that you have fallen into, and if it becomes a perpetual habit it will change your character and keep you from flourishing. If this is a problem for you, talk to God about it in prayer, talk to your pastor, your parent, a trusted friend, a counselor, but do not ignore it.
~ Jeff Fletcher
QUESTIONS:
In what areas of your life are you slothful? What areas are you more of a workaholic?
Why can slothfulness (or acedia) be damaging to your relationships with God and others? Have you experienced some of that damage yourself?
Make a list of actions or habits that you could begin to practice to fight against slothfulness in your life.
As I was reading through today’s chapter in Proverbs I felt pulled in several directions. There’s so much really good stuff in this one chapter and I had a hard time choosing which of the many wonderfully wise sayings I wanted to talk about.
Verse one was tempting: “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” We could think about the wisdom in having connection to a community of wise and trusted others to help us navigate challenges and get their feedback on important decisions.
Verse eight was also tempting: “The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.” We could spend some time with that thinking about the effects of gossip and slanderous speech and how much time people invest in reading or sharing gossip about others. In fact, this chapter has a lot of little Proverbs that have to do with our speech. Those who want to live a flourishing life should pay careful attention to what comes out of their mouths.
I finally settled on verse twenty-two: ”He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” I cannot resist taking the opportunity to think with you about how important this is. Dr. Dustin Smith recently published an excellent book Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John. In his book he spends time looking at the book of Proverbs and how it lauds “lady wisdom” as being a very important part of God’s creation. He shows how the book of Proverbs refers to this lady wisdom throughout and builds to a climax in the final chapter with a description of an exemplary wife as the embodiment of wisdom. (You should check the book out, It is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle).
Throughout Proverbs there is a close connection between wisdom and a “good wife”. King Solomon who wrote or assembled much of the material in Proverbs certainly had a somewhat complicated life in relation to women or wives. His own mother, Bathsheba, became his father David’s wife in a very ungodly way. His father committed adultery with her and then had her husband killed in battle to try to cover it up. Talk about family skeletons. Solomon himself took the trapping of being a king way too far and had a whole harem of wives and concubines. As wise as he eventually was, it was a challenge to live out the truth. Perhaps Solomon came to the wise insight of this problem as he reflected on the challenges and costs of having multiple wives and a stable of sexual partners. This might appear to be the perfect life (think Hugh Heffner, the founder of Playboy magazine, constantly surrounded by beautiful young women- isn’t that the fulfillment of every young man’s fantasies?
Yet, at some point in his life, Solomon finally comes to the wise realization that having a large number of sexual partners is in fact, not very satisfying, not very wise and in fact is not the path to a flourishing life. Solomon comes to realize that true joy, true flourishing comes in finding “a wife”, one, singular woman with whom to enter into a lifetime covenant. This was God’s design from the beginning of creation. God created Adam from the earth, but recognized that Adam would not flourish in isolation. He needed a companion, someone alongside him to share his life. So God created Eve and told them to work together to bring flourishing to the earth. This was God design for flourishing.
Solomon came to wisely recognize the truth that having a wife, not 700 wives and 300 girlfriends, is the truly good thing and is a true gift from God and a sign of God’s gracious favor. It is too bad that Solomon did not learn this lesson earlier, as the Bible says his multiple wives turned his heart away from God. But at least in his honest and reflective moment he could come to terms with his own mistakes and sins and see where the truth really is in God’s design. And that is true for all of us. Wisdom is not poured into our brains, it comes by experience and we make many mistakes on the way to wisdom.
As I write this devotion I am getting ready to go on a special trip with my wife. This year we are celebrating 40 years of marriage so we are going to a beautiful place far away to celebrate our life together. During that 40 years we have been blessed with eleven children and fifteen, soon to be sixteen grandchildren. Our marriage has not been perfect. I did plenty of really stupid stuff when I was younger. (And, to be honest, I still do stupid stuff sometimes.) My Karen has been by my side throughout. She loves me, she bore, nursed, fed and clothed and cared for my eleven children. She accompanied me to each place I did ministry, packing up everything and organizing massive relocation projects. She has helped me navigate challenges in my ministry, my spiritual growth, my ongoing education and my ongoing health challenges. I can honestly say that she has made me a better person. Apart from my decision to accept Jesus Christ as my savior and follow him, my decision to marry Karen is the wisest thing I have ever done. She is a daily reminder to me that Solomon’s wise words are 100% true, ”He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”
When I was young, I didn’t understand the wisdom of these words. Even when I was newly married I failed to appreciate just how true these words are. I am speaking this from the perspective of a man married to a woman. A woman’s view of her husband may be different in some respects, but I would say that there is much you can apply in your life as well. The importance is taking the time to truly appreciate the value that your spouse brings to your life and if you are unmarried, consider how truly important the decision on who you will marry is, and when married, the importance of gratitude for the one God has provided for you. They are not perfect just as you are not perfect, but they are a gift from God and a part of a flourishing life so appreciate them, value them, cherish them.
~ Jeff Fletcher
QUESTIONS:
In modern culture, we often use the term life partner when talking about spouses. Why is it so important to ‘partner’ with someone who has the same values as you?
A spouse always influences you. What are traits of a spouse that would influence you to live a godly life?
If you are already married, how can you show love and appreciation for your spouse? How can you influence each other to live a godly life?
Seek Grow Love 