Proverbs
16
Verse 16:2 has always been a tough one for me:
Even when you think you have good
intentions,
He knows your real motives.
What drives us deep down? Is it really to honor God or get
something in the end? I know often my inner drive is more based on “what’s in
it for me” more than honoring God. It drives me up the wall since God does know
my inner thoughts. I started the blog assuming God would bless it with some
agent reading it and signing a book deal. Over a thousand posts later and we
may get 1 or 2 visitors a week, but now doing it to expand my knowledge and
pray it helps another find Jesus.
Verse 16:8 shows us the power of want:
Better to have little and stand for
what is right
than to become rich by doing what is wrong.
Jesus was not anti-wealth, but rather anti-separation from
God. Money tends to get us busy and redirected to places away from God. This is
saying avoid the distractions and be happy in what you have.
Verse 16:18 has been paraphrased into almost a cliché:
Pride precedes destruction;
an arrogant spirit gives way to a nasty fall.
“Pride comes before a fall” is this verse boiled down. I
personally have experienced pride in racing before I literally fell. I was “hot
poo-poo” then I crashed and suffered injuries, everything from concussions to
ruptured disc in the back. All were preceded by me thinking I was some great
rider.
Verse 16:32 addresses our drive:
It is better to be a patient man
than a mighty warrior,
better to be someone who controls his temper than
someone who conquers a city.
Asking someone to be patient today is a whole new ball game.
No longer do we have to prepare food, but rather drive through gives it to us
now. No longer do we need to go to the library to research a project, but we
can answer deep questions at the kid’s ball game with our iPhone. No longer do
we need to go to a “special store” to purchase porn, now we can watch it at our
kid’s ball game. Patience is a lost
virtue.
I think the second line is more important since most
impatient people tend to have an inability to control their temper. That causes
more damage than anything!! A short outburst can destroy years of trust or
respect. This cuts deep with me since my closest friends have been decimated by
my sharp temper, Mike Lanning was the first. I blew up just playing around and
stuck him with a heavy gage wire “whip” leaving a long lasting welt and a
permanently damaged relationship. This is really the key to patience, not doing
something stupid.
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