Straight
We hear
Proverbs 3:5 quoted all the time. Trust
in the Lord with all your heart. Lean
not onto your own understanding. That’s
absolutely good advice – I’m not going to talk against that at all. The less we lean on our own ability to
understand the better.
However, I
wonder how often we take the very next verse to heart. It’s almost like we get so excited about
verse 5 that we put verse 6 in its shadow and ignore it. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will
make straight your paths.
Let me say
that again putting emphasis on a couple of words. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will
make straight your paths. Yes, the Bible
does say all your ways. That’s the
key. What happens to Christians when
they acknowledge God in some of their life but have another part of their life
that is kept separate from God? The part
of life that is kept separate usually takes over the part that isn’t. Soon we find ourselves having less and less
of our life acknowledging God. Soon we
find ourselves living a life that is focused on our own desires. It may sound trite to say, but we either give
everything to God or we end up giving nothing to God.
But that’s
not all. Note that it is God who makes
our way straight. It is God who is
responsible for making our life work out so long as we give everything to
Him. But who else can really do the
task? Clearly I can’t make my ways
straight – I’ve got plenty of sin to prove that thought false. I can’t trust anyone else to make my paths
straight. So if God is the only one who
can make my paths straight, why would I not give Him everything? Why would I not acknowledge Him in everything
I do since He is the only one who can make my ways straight? As the writer of Proverbs goes on to say,
such a decision will only lead to our healing.
Praise Versus Correction
Then we
come down a few verses and we hear about not despising the Lord’s reproof. Earlier in Sunday School we got an
opportunity to talk about Ecclesiastes 7:5.
It is better for a person to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear
the song of fools. In both of these
contexts we hear about how we as human beings should be appreciative of
constructive criticism, discipline, and reproof.
This is
completely contrary to human nature.
Don’t we all love praise more than correction? Don’t we all love to hear an accolade far
more than we hear something that we could do better? Don’t get me wrong. We do all need to hear some good stuff.
But don’t
we actually learn better when people honestly sit down and evaluate a
performance rather than just simply tell us how great we are? Isn’t it far more meaningful to hear an
honest evaluation of what went well and what could have gone better than it is
to hear how awesome something was?
Remember
that this proverb is specifically talking about rebuke from the Lord. If we cannot trust that the Lord’s correction
is good whose can we trust?
Do’s and Don’t’s
Then we
turn to a fairly good list of “do’s” and “don’ts.”
- Don’t promise something to your neighbor when you have it today. This isn’t so much about a policy of “perhaps not being able to keep your word tomorrow” as much as it is a policy of selfishness. Why would you hold onto something you have planned on giving up if you can give it up and help your neighbor today?
- Don’t plan evil against those who trust you. In other words … don’t make an enemy out of a perfectly good friend. That makes sense, doesn’t it? But how many of us actually live our life making enemies out of perfectly good friends?
- Don’t envy the ways of the wicked. But wait, there’s more. Don’t envy the ways of the wicked … because a devious person is an abomination to the Lord. From a relationship angle, this makes a ton of sense. What is a devious person? A devious person is someone who secretly plans the downfall of another. It may be for selfish reasons; it may be for anger. But in the end, deception and devious behavior destroys community. God is about building up people. God is about building up communities. God has no part in the destruction of those things.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment