Proverbs 6:1-11 - Keeping Guard & Paying Attention

This section of Proverbs 6 talks about the consequences that come from letting your guard down. Verses 10-11 say, "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." To me, this is saying that anytime we think that we've done something good and worthy, we can just take a rest and relax because it's done. Sometimes when this happens we not only take a rest (since everyone should rest and relax sometime!), but instead we take a rest from God. This is something that we should be careful about happening because when we let our guard down and take a rest away from God, we start to falter and lose our step on that straight and narrow path.

The first eleven verses of Proverbs 6 really caught my eye. If you haven't noticed a pattern yet, I am reading through Proverbs right now during my devotional times. So far it's really speaking to me in so many ways. I was looking up some cross references and seemed to stumble upon Hebrews 2:1, which says, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." This one goes along exactly with what I was just discussing in the last paragraph on verses 10-11. We need to pay careful attention to God's Word and listen to Him so that we do not drift away from our Lord and Savior.

As the pastor at my church said today, storms will always come and go, it's just a matter of how we handle them. We could take them as a challenge from God to know that He is preparing us for something in the future, or we could crawl in a hole and hide. It's up to us to decide because God built free will into each and every one of us. We have the choice to rest, or we have the choice to be diligent servants of God. It's up to us how we choose to live our life. I choose to live mine for Christ and follow Him as my guide. How about you?

Proverbs 4:7 - Wisdom and Understanding

Proverbs 4:7 says, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding."

The second sentence in this verse really spoke to me last night. So many times we get very attached to our earthly belongings that we forget that they're really quite worthless in comparison to what God has in store for us up in heaven. Sometimes we just need to slow down, give up our attachments, and surrender everything to God. 

When you think about the last part, "Though it cost all you have, get understanding." Sometimes it takes the loss of something, or someone, to get us to realize that God has everything we need, and we need to surrender to Him. Once we fully surrender, we will gain understanding and wisdom. 

Sometimes I get too selfish and afterwards I feel awful about it and say to myself, "I could have shared that. That was no reason not to!" So this is not only something that I challenge you to work on, this is also a challenge for myself. I am going to work on it in the next couple of days and I will report back on how it worked out. Feel free to comment if you take up the challenge. I'd love to hear how it goes for you!

God bless!