Proverbs 5-8; Matthew 7

Who are the people in your life that want you to do well? To persevere? To succeed? Who cheers you on and stands in your corner? A parent? A coach? A spouse? A friend? A sibling? Strangers on the Strava app? Proverbs 5-8 and Matthew 7 are overflowing with counsel, encouragement, wisdom, guidance, love.

My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
    listen carefully to my wise counsel.
² Then you will show discernment,
    and your lips will express what you’ve learned.

Proverbs 5:1-2, NLT

So now, my sons, listen to me.
    Never stray from what I am about to say

Proverbs 5:7a, NLT

My son, obey your father’s commands,
    and don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
²¹ Keep their words always in your heart.
    Tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, their counsel will lead you.
    When you sleep, they will protect you.
    When you wake up, they will advise you.
²³ For their command is a lamp
    and their instruction a light;
their corrective discipline
    is the way to life.

Proverbs 6:20-23, NLT

Follow my advice, my son;
    always treasure my commands.
² Obey my commands and live!
    Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes.
³ Tie them on your fingers as a reminder.
    Write them deep within your heart.

⁴ Love wisdom like a sister;
    make insight a beloved member of your family.

Proverbs 7:1-4, NLT

“I call to you, to all of you!
    I raise my voice to all people.
⁵ You simple people, use good judgment.
    You foolish people, show some understanding.
⁶ Listen to me! For I have important things to tell you.
    Everything I say is right,
⁷ for I speak the truth
    and detest every kind of deception.
⁸ My advice is wholesome.
    There is nothing devious or crooked in it.
⁹ My words are plain to anyone with understanding,
    clear to those with knowledge.

Proverbs 8:4-9, NLT

I notice it in abundance, poured out and over me, and I’m grateful.

⁶ “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? ¹⁰ Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! ¹¹ So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

Matthew 7:6-11, NLT

¹³ “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. ¹⁴ But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Matthew 7:13, NLT

²⁴ “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Matthew 7:24, NLT

The Lord is for me. He loves me. He values me. He wants me to succeed because it brings him delight, pleasure, and glory. He wants me to follow him and model him. He is working to change me into his image. He loves me so much, he doesn’t want to leave me as he found me, but wants to bring me into life, abundant life because he is so good. And I am so grateful.

Courtney (66books365)

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1 Kings 2; 1 Chronicles 29; 2 Corinthians 11; Psalm 95

Last Monday I completed my last day of teaching Life Skills to a high school class. For a spring semester, for an hour and a half on Mondays, we focused on honoring God through stewardship of time, talent, treasure, heart (faith), and health. In that time constraint, it was a crash course, and like a lot of parents feel in the high school years, I also felt a pressure to tell these students as much as I could to prepare them for a next chapter in life. But this mostly: have a Bible, read it, put God’s Word in their hearts.

A friend had shared a quote with me by St. Jerome, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

Reading David’s words to Solomon today, I hear his heart’s desire for his son:

As the time of King David’s death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon:

² “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. ³ Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. ⁴ If you do this, then the Lord will keep the promise he made to me. He told me, ‘If your descendants live as they should and follow me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’

1 Kings 2:1-4, NLT, emphasis mine

What better advice can a parent offer a child? To follow the Lord. To honor him.

“O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever and ever! ¹¹ Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. ¹² Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.

1 Chronicles 29:10-12, NLT

Lord, I don’t want to be ignorant of you. I need your Word and your holy Spirit every day.

² For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ. ³ But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. ⁴ You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

2 Corinthians 11:2-4, NLT

I am so grateful for your words in my hands and in my heart.

¹ Come, let us sing to the Lord!
    Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
    Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
³ For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.
⁴ He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
    and the mightiest mountains.
⁵ The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
    His hands formed the dry land, too.

⁶ Come, let us worship and bow down.
    Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
⁷     for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
    the flock under his care.

If only you would listen to his voice today!

Psalm 95:1-7, NLT

One year, I signed up for a bird watching hike with my youngest daughter, and our group made our way to a pavilion in the woods, binoculars in hand. We sat there, and I impatiently wondered what the hold up was. Were we waiting for someone? Then the guide instructed us to use our senses, to hear the birds’ song and follow the sound to sight the birds. Song? I only heard the running stream of stressful thoughts and concerns in my head. When I turned down my own voice, I was washed over with birdsong. If I couldn’t hear the birds singing, how would I hear the Lord? I learned to quiet myself and sit at his feet, to listen to his voice. He is near.

Courtney (66books365)

2 Samuel 3-5; 1 Chronicles 12

Seeking the Lord.

Abner makes moves to support David and bring him to leadership over Israel.

⁸ Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth and said, “Am I a dog’s head of Judah? To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman. ⁹ God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, ¹⁰ to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba.” ¹¹ And Ish-bosheth could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.

¹² And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, “To whom does the land belong? Make your covenant with me, and behold, my hand shall be with you to bring over all Israel to you.

2 Samuel 3:8-12, ESV

Had the Lord chosen David? Yes.

Joab doesn’t trust Abner.

When Joab and all the army that was with him came, it was told Joab, “Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has let him go, and he has gone in peace.” ²⁴ Then Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, so that he is gone? ²⁵ You know that Abner the son of Ner came to deceive you and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you are doing.”

²⁶ When Joab came out from David’s presence, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern of Sirah. But David did not know about it. ²⁷ And when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him privately, and there he struck him in the stomach, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

2 Samuel 3:23-27, ESV

Joab cared for David. He likely felt he was doing the right thing. Were his thoughts and actions toward Abner influenced by his own knowledge of Abner? Likely yes.

Abner and Joab were both seeking to do what they felt was right, whatever their parallel motives were. But neither sought the Lord. I especially notice this contrast later when David repeatedly inquires of the Lord.

¹⁷ When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. ¹⁸ Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁹ And David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.”

2 Samuel 5:17-19, ESV

I think it’s very possible to want to do the right thing and go about it in the wrong way.

Lord, your word encourages me to trust in you, to lean on you, to acknowledge you–and that you will direct my path. The world applauds those who can take matters into their own hands, but you delight in those who trust the matter in yours.

Courtney (66books365)

1 Samuel 28-30; 1 Corinthians 11; Psalm 109

There’s such a contrast between how Saul and David handle conflict. Both contend with adversaries. And while Saul petitions the Lord for guidance, when he doesn’t receive answer (at least not when he wants and needs an answer), he reaches out to a medium in desperation. When I think of Saul, words like facade, desperate, reactive come to mind.

The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. ⁵ When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. ⁶ And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. ⁷ Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”

1 Samuel 28:4-7, ESV

David is let go from his position with the Philistines, and upon his return home, finds that the Amalekites had raided Ziklag and carried off wives, children, and more. Not only has an enemy taken from him, but the men who were with David are about to turn against him too.

And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. ⁵ David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. ⁶ And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

1 Samuel 30:3-6, ESV

It’s this line that speaks out to me above the others: But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. In David’s great distress–he had just finished raising his voice and weeping with others until he had no more strength to cry and his own men were bitter and willing to kill David (oh if ever there were a time to feel isolated, powerless and panicked, this could well be it)–he strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

I’m so thankful for examples like this. The contrast between Saul and David and the lessons gleaned from each emphasize to me the importance of community and influence. In desperation and fear, I have also felt panic. But when I’m focused on the Lord, he is where I put my trust and strength. If I’m not in God’s Word or around others who know the strength of the Lord, I can feel isolated, powerless and panicked.

Father God, in your mercy and love, you have not left us alone in the world. You have given us your Word, your Son, and your Spirit to strengthen and guide us. Thank you for getting my attention and drawing me close to you.

Courtney (66books365)

1 Samuel 12-13; 1 Chronicles 1-3; 1 Corinthians 1

You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you.

Ouch. It seemed as though Saul was doing the right thing–he waited the seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. Driven by urgency, impulse, desperation, fear, who knows, he took matters into his own hands. Wouldn’t any leader? Even though his offering was to the Lord, he was not consulting or seeking the Lord. And this would be telling sign of his leadership.

⁸ He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. ⁹ So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. ¹¹ Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, ¹² I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” ¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

1 Samuel 13:8-14, ESV, emphasis added

I looked up the significance of a burnt offering in Old Testament times, and a resource states: The biggest difference between the burnt offering and other offerings is that to make a burnt offering the entire animal was burned on the altar, symbolizing total commitment or surrender to God.

Lord, I sit with this Scripture today and think on my habits. I want to steward my responsibilities wisely and to bring you glory. Thank you for the reminder to seek you first and to wait on you.

Courtney (66books365)