Day 23, Proverbs Chapter 23

[brinny]

yes, and the Psalms are full of the promise that God provides...
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Ps. 84:11

I know...I love the picture...

That is sooooo true, and i am sooooo thankful that He KEEPS His promises, in ways we don't even realize sometimes, till later.

That's a profoundly true verse and image.

Amen!

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

This is a very reassuring and comforting verse, isn't it?

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

Disregarding boundaries.

This verse repeats itself from Prov 22, emphasizing what God finds abominable, and it also serves as a warning:

"Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:" ~Proverbs 23:10

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

The Key.

It is sooooooo very subtle, how God heals us, and the most surprising ways that He does. It might confound us in our own logic and finite reasoning and "instincts". Yet, God sees the BIGGER picture, of generations, and the well being of His "remnant" (us).

"Honor" is tied into "healing". It's the very thing that will open the door to a "new heart" and a "new mind", and a will that is "surrendered" to Him. During all of this, He gives the wisdom to understand what "honor" means.

Our parents may not "deserve" honor from our perspective. And in "human" terms, it is understood, and at times avoided, unless there is understanding what it means. From God's perspective, it is linked to "grace" and "mercy". For to embrace "honor" for one's parents who don't, in human terms, "deserve" it, would require inexplicable "grace" and "mercy" and the intermingling "wisdom" and "discernment" that ONLY God can give.

It would require forgiveness, tied up in grace and mercy.

Honoring one's parents is acknowledging that it was our father and our mother who gave us "life", by God's grace.

In honoring them, healing commences, not just in our perspective on our parents, but healing, of the deepest kind, commences in "us".

The bottom line is, that god has just performed a miracle that will echo in the chambers of eternity. He just used "us" to be His vessel to interrupt generational curses and to "set prisoners free".

These "prisoners" are not just our mom and dad, but also "us".

We were all prisoners.

God gives us the "key" to set us "all" free.

The "key" is hidden within "forgiveness", and the grace and the mercy that makes a miracle like "forgiveness" come to pass.

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

Envy and covetousness.
AKA Eternal treasures.

Avoid them like the plague that they are. Remember that we are all but dust, and so is that thing (or whatever it is) that we covet for. All of it, is "dust in the wind".

Hold fast to those things that are eternal, although not necessarily "seen" right now with our finite vision, does not rust, or get moth eaten, or turn to dust and blow away with the wind.

"When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven." ~Pr 23:1-5

Praise God that we DO have a hope, and that our end is NOT "dust in the wind".

"Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off." ~Pr 23:18

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

"Heart" thoughts.

"Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge." ~Pr 23:12

God looks on the "heart" and what is IN the heart, not necessarily on what we "say".

We are told to examine ourselves, and that means to delve into and examine what is in our hearts, for therein lies WHO we really are. THAT is what God searches; our "hearts".

Amen?

"For as one thinks within his heart, so is he." ~Pr 23:7

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

A foolish heart.

"cease from thine own wisdom." ~Pr 23:4

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

Deceptive heart.

This is profound.

Ev'ry thing BEGINS in the heart, doesn't it?

In that regard, nothing coming out of our mouth matters, in particular, what "itching ears" seek, along with the accompanying smooth words, and flattery, and the resulting "insulation" from the TRUTH of God and His Word.

Those flattering, smooth words do this:

"At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." ~Pr 23:32

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

Honoring our Mother and Father.
AKA: Breaking generational curses.
AKA: Breaking spiritual "strongholds".

There is more wisdom in this than first meets the eye. Parents are not always "honorable". As a matter of fact, they might just be quite abominable and monstrous.

If so, how in the world does one "honor" them?

It's a "God-thing". By that, i mean that only by God's inexplicable grace, unction, and His wisdom, can we do this.

We CANNOT do this in our strength, but only by God's wisdom and grace that HE "plants" in the very core of our hearts. HE gives us the strength and the wisdom to "see" our parents in a different "light" and to "see" (open our eyes) to the "bigger picture" of an "eternal" kind.

The "bigger picture" is that God is working through "us" to break the stronghold that not only held our parents in bondage, but their ancestors before them, and also what held "us" in bondage before God's intervention.

It IS a blessing if our parents were sane and were healthy for us. However many were not. Yet God is the God of the "possible" of what seems "impossible". We can, through Him, "honor" them. At the very least for the fact that it was through our father and our mother that we came into this world.

And when we do, is when genuine healing commences for "us". It's also when we genuinely "grow up".

He really CAN raise beauty from ashes.

 

[SWIll]

Pr 23:20-21
Don't associate with those who drink too much wine or with those who gorge themselves on meat. For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and grogginess will clothe them in rags. ESV

Not to mention all the associated health and fitness risks! This one can sound like it doesn't apply to us, but it really does. I need to remember each day to take care of the 'Temple'!

 

[brinny]

Pr 23:20-21
Don't associate with those who drink too much wine or with those who gorge themselves on meat. For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and grogginess will clothe them in rags. ESV

Not to mention all the associated health and fitness risks! This one can sound like it doesn't apply to us, but it really does. I need to remember each day to take care of the 'Temple'!

I soooooo agree. Especially now, when so much in the grocery stores are actually "toxic" for us, for example breakfast cereal. It was recently in the news that Glyphosate, chemical used in pesticides, that causes cancer, amongst other things, via Monsanto, was found in breakfast cereals, unbeknownst to most Americans and especially their children who eat them for breakfast and snacks, etc.

Amen. May God guide us all in wisely deciding what to ingest.

 

[SWIll]

Pr 23:4-5
"Don't wear yourself out to get rich; stop giving your attention to it. As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky." HCSB

I try to tell myself to be grateful for what we have and not what I want.

 

[brinny]

Pr 23:4-5
"Don't wear yourself out to get rich; stop giving your attention to it. As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky." HCSB

I try to tell myself to be grateful for what we have and not what I want.

i agree.

Contentment = peace.

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

No worries.

"There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off." ~Pr 23:18

We have as an inheritance, which include God's blessings and His extraordinary favor. He has already formed it for us. We are written/etched in the palm of His hand. It is DONE. Reminds me of exactly why the woman, described in Proverbs 31, faces the future without worry. And that is because, as it is written, she is "wise". And "wisdom" is given to us when we "fear the Lord". And if this woman spoken of in Proverbs 31 is "wise", that is why she fears nothing else, for she "fears the Lord" as any wise one of God's own inevitably does.

THIS is why she can face the future fearl-less-ly, and with confidence in her God.

And she BELIEVES His promises.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jere 29:11

 

[BaptistBibleBeliever]

"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words" (Pro 23:9 KJV).

As Bible believers, the only thing we have is our Bible to comfort, to counsel, to edify, to correct, and to equip. If a man rejects the Final Authority, he is a fool, for he has heard it all before and now he is wiser than the One that gave us His Word. Now, he is a mocker, and a scoffer. Whatever is offered to him from God's precious table is but that which is to be laughed at and put under his feet. Jesus told us how to handle such people, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you" (Mat 7:6 KJV).

Now, I know that this does not fit the modern concept of the loving Saviour Who would never offend anyone, the One that would gladly sit at a bar and drink with the patrons, and never, no never, judge them. To manufacture such a picture as this of our Holy and Righteous God is only the banter of fools, and very likely the ones of whom 23:9 is addressing.

We know that our Redeemer is coming again, many signs point to His return for His Bride. Among those "signs" are the scoffers and the mockers, those that "despise the wisdom" of the Word of God. Those that can no longer blush in the face of their puny attempts to joke about and blaspheme the very One that paid for their sins on the cross, the One that "bought them," as Peter says.

As believers, we need to know when to walk away from a fool and leave them to their folly. If we continue to engage them in theological arguments, they will only despise us and the One that sent us. Leave them to their own devices. Perhaps you have planted a seed, but it is best to let another water it, and pray that another might one day harvest it.

Lord, teach us that the battle is Yours. We are merely your ambassadors. You have given us a message to those that are lost, but help us to know when pursuing a soul can bring more harm than good. Teach us to be your gentle servants, wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. Amen.

 

[brinny]

"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words" (Pro 23:9 KJV).

As Bible believers, the only thing we have is our Bible to comfort, to counsel, to edify, to correct, and to equip. If a man rejects the Final Authority, he is a fool, for he has heard it all before and now he is wiser than the One that gave us His Word. Now, he is a mocker, and a scoffer. Whatever is offered to him from God's precious table is but that which is to be laughed at and put under his feet. Jesus told us how to handle such people, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you" (Mat 7:6 KJV).

Now, I know that this does not fit the modern concept of the loving Saviour Who would never offend anyone, the One that would gladly sit at a bar and drink with the patrons, and never, no never, judge them. To manufacture such a picture as this of our Holy and Righteous God is only the banter of fools, and very likely the ones of whom 23:9 is addressing.

We know that our Redeemer is coming again, many signs point to His return for His Bride. Among those "signs" are the scoffers and the mockers, those that "despise the wisdom" of the Word of God. Those that can no longer blush in the face of their puny attempts to joke about and blaspheme the very One that paid for their sins on the cross, the One that "bought them," as Peter says.

As believers, we need to know when to walk away from a fool and leave them to their folly. If we continue to engage them in theological arguments, they will only despise us and the One that sent us. Leave them to their own devices. Perhaps you have planted a seed, but it is best to let another water it, and pray that another might one day harvest it.

Lord, teach us that the battle is Yours. We are merely your ambassadors. You have given us a message to those that are lost, but help us to know when pursuing a soul can bring more harm than good. Teach us to be your gentle servants, wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. Amen.

Amen.

Our loving and holy and just Savior is not "politically correct".

However, Satan is. And he uses that political correctness as a battering ram to intimidate, and cower those unfortunates who do not understand nor embrace the "fear of the Lord" and are thus tyrannized by Satan and his minions and his agents, and ALL shackled and chained up.

Reminds me of this quote below.

Thank you for your thought-provoking post. It edified and blessed me.

God bless you.

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

God reads the heart, not our words. It is the condition of our heart that He focuses on, and that "speaks" louder than our "words", although "silent" to our ears, not silent to God's ears. And that is because nothing is hidden from God. Our intents, generating from a heart that belies pretty, deceptive words, speaks out loud and clear to God.

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

Heart-think.

It is what is in our hearts that "defines" us, rather than what we "say", or what we "do". For it ALL "starts" right there in our hearts, bottom line. It was so in Lucifer's heart (that was re-named "Satan"), as he had determined to commit the treason of all treasons, and that was to overthrow the living God, ousting Him from His throne. Did he not know that God "sees" ALL things?

Let's get our "hearts" right with God. Then ev'ry thing that flows from it will be as this verse says, amen?:

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things arejust, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." ~Phil 4:8

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

Being Still.
AKA: Delving for treasure.

It hasn't been something that I have found easy. And that is "being still". Along with the "being still" is the admonition to "give ear", and that means to, while being "still" to give undivided attention and undeterred "focus" on what is being taught or "said", especially regarding God's teachings, instructions, and admonitions, in particular, in His Word. As a matter of fact, we are to be "eager" to "hear" it and to take "joy" in it and to even seek it fervently, as if we are digging and/or delving for "hidden treasure".

My prayer is that i will.

 

[brinny]

Proverbs 23:

Establishing our thoughts.

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:" ~Pr 23:7

Our "words" do not matter as much as what is in our "heart", to God. Our "heart" is what He zero's in on and "reads".

We can say all the "pretty" words we like, but if our "heart" is not in sync with those words, they are just "hot air", blowing in the wind.

We are to "examine" ourselves, which means to examine our "hearts". Words should never proceed from our mouths if they are not in sync with our Father, and therefore bless His heart. For if they bless His heart, they will surely bless others as well.

Amen?