Proverbs 16:16-28
Verse 16 – It’s much more important to have godly wisdom (seeing things as God sees) and understanding (knowing how to apply that wisdom) than it is to be rich, have nice homes, the trendiest clothes, the best foods or the newest toys. Yet how often is it that I focus on the “things” rather than “THE THING!” How much more I work at getting nicer things (even at a cheaper price) than I do seeking after wisdom and understanding…often…and that’s an understatement!
Verse 17 – “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil” Okay, not sure exactly what that means but let me try. A highway is what we drive on to get from one place to the next but it’s a faster way, more convenient and offers less unnecessary stops. So maybe this verse is telling me that the better road for me ,or better way I should say, is departing from evil! It gets me where I want to end up (closer to Christ) quicker, not sure if it’s more convenient but it surely offers less unnecessary stops in the form of missteps in my daily walk with Christ!
Verse 18 – Yes, being prideful is just a precursor to falling flat on my face, I’ve learned that! But what I forget is that it’s actually what comes before DESTRUCTION! That’s a big word! I don’t want destruction in my life! Lord help me to remember that whenever I start to think about how great I am the next step will be disaster so please, remind me before I get there!
Verse 19 – It’s better to be humble and not have much than to have a great many things and share it with prideful people. Help me to teach my children that pride is dangerous to a Christian! Help me to teach them to be humble of heart and spirit!
Verse 20 – Oh this is a great verse! Handling a matter wisely will bring about a good ending; solution. Trusting in the Lord no matter what brings happiness. Lord teach me to trust You! There are plenty of times when I doubt and question at balk but Lord teach me what it is to truly TRUST in YOU!!! I know that no matter what may befall me if I were to simply trust I will find happiness and peace in You! Lord teach me, help me, change me!
Verses 21-23 – So this understanding and wisdom are pretty important to the Lord and very “beneficial” to the Christian. If I could only learn to seek wisdom and understanding, Lord if I could attain even a little bit of that I know that my life would be much different! Lord, again, teach me, show me, change me! Give me wisdom when it comes to being a wife, mother, homeschooler and Pastor’s wife! Help me to be full of YOUR wisdom so that I can be used to bless others! A wise heart will be shown through the mouth, the words that are spoken, Lord help me to be used in that way!
Verse 24 – Pleasant words, oh boy those are hard to come by! It’s so hard for me to be pleasant sometimes! Grow me in this area! Help me to change my tone! Show me what my own ugliness does to those closest to me, those that I love the most!
Verse 25 – Help me not to trust in my own ideas and plans. Show me that even though doing one thing may seem better Your Word tells us that it is the way to death! Give me the wisdom and foresight to see and recognize that!
Verses 26-28 – Help me NOT to be what these verses are talking about; ungodly, froward, sower of strife, or a separator of friends! God, I need You today to show me what I am doing wrong! I know that it is a lot! Help me to stay away from the wrong road and stay on the “highway of the upright!”
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Psalm 127
Verse 1 – How vain it is and worthless I might add, to try and raise our children, create family times and family outings without the leading of the Lord. How worthless it is to spend time coming up with our own ideas based on our own desires, wants and beliefs. The only thing that will grow a family into “success” is God doing the building.
Lord help me to remember to turn to you for guidance…no, not guidance but for LEADERSHIP!!! Turn my eyes and my heart up toward You so that I will know what you want for my husband and my children!! Keep me close Lord and when I stray remind me and bring me back so that my “house building” is not done in vain!!
Verse 3 – Children are a gift from You! Well, not even a gift, Your Word calls them an heritage. Another way to define heritage according to the Hebrew in Strong’s Conc. is “heirloom”. How carefully we take care of family heirlooms and how priceless they are! Those items are parts of families and treasured for generations.
Lord are you saying here that our children are Your heirlooms, passed on to us to take care of as priceless treasure?! How much better should I be doing then!
Lord help me to keep that precious truth in the forefront of my thoughts!! Help me to remember that these precious little ones, although time consuming and overwhelming at times, are to be taken special care of. They are to be dealt with as the special items that they are! Lord help the words of my mouth to be kind words! Help the looks on my face to be looks of love and patience! Lord I’m begging you to make me a better mother!! Only YOU can do that work in me! I need you to change me!! I don’t want to cause my children to be angry people!! Lord help me!
Psalm 128: 1-3 – Lord help us to not act as if our four children are burdens! Help us to show them that we are glad that You have given us a big family! I don’t want them to grow up not wanting a big family because they saw how negatively we allowed it to affect us!
You tell us in 127:5 that those with a “quiver” full of children will be happy! Lord help us to be happy with what You have so carefully given to us! Help us not to be ashamed as Your Word says but instead to be proud of the wonderful “heirlooms” you have left in our care!! Help us Lord!!!
Verse 1 – How vain it is and worthless I might add, to try and raise our children, create family times and family outings without the leading of the Lord. How worthless it is to spend time coming up with our own ideas based on our own desires, wants and beliefs. The only thing that will grow a family into “success” is God doing the building.
Lord help me to remember to turn to you for guidance…no, not guidance but for LEADERSHIP!!! Turn my eyes and my heart up toward You so that I will know what you want for my husband and my children!! Keep me close Lord and when I stray remind me and bring me back so that my “house building” is not done in vain!!
Verse 3 – Children are a gift from You! Well, not even a gift, Your Word calls them an heritage. Another way to define heritage according to the Hebrew in Strong’s Conc. is “heirloom”. How carefully we take care of family heirlooms and how priceless they are! Those items are parts of families and treasured for generations.
Lord are you saying here that our children are Your heirlooms, passed on to us to take care of as priceless treasure?! How much better should I be doing then!
Lord help me to keep that precious truth in the forefront of my thoughts!! Help me to remember that these precious little ones, although time consuming and overwhelming at times, are to be taken special care of. They are to be dealt with as the special items that they are! Lord help the words of my mouth to be kind words! Help the looks on my face to be looks of love and patience! Lord I’m begging you to make me a better mother!! Only YOU can do that work in me! I need you to change me!! I don’t want to cause my children to be angry people!! Lord help me!
Psalm 128: 1-3 – Lord help us to not act as if our four children are burdens! Help us to show them that we are glad that You have given us a big family! I don’t want them to grow up not wanting a big family because they saw how negatively we allowed it to affect us!
You tell us in 127:5 that those with a “quiver” full of children will be happy! Lord help us to be happy with what You have so carefully given to us! Help us not to be ashamed as Your Word says but instead to be proud of the wonderful “heirlooms” you have left in our care!! Help us Lord!!!
Proverbs 3:11-12
Prov. 3:11-12 - Sometimes I’m sure that we just wish that the Lord would take a “vacation” from His chastisement. That He would just leave us alone when it comes to correcting us when we do wrong. However, God in His infinite wisdom, mercy and grace never gives to us what we don’t deserve and always what will better us as His servants. His chastening is a reminder of His great love for us!
Prov. 13:24 – I love my children and desire for them to grow up into men and women of strong character, faith and wisdom. I know that this world is full of things that Satan wants to use in order to stop just that from happening. I tell my little ones that the discipline that they receive from us is because we love them so much and want them to be well aware of the consequences of wrong choices and sin. I don’t like doing it, but know that it’s necessary. I do it because I love them-just as this verse from God’s Word tells us! Not disciplining, like the world encourages, produces self-centered, uncontrolled, disrespectful, and wicked adults. I don’t want that for my children! That is God’s reason for instilling chastisement. Now it is always, always, always to be done in a controlled and careful manner! Abuse is not what God encourages! God states clearly in His Word that we are not to provoke our children to wrath, which is what we do when we discipline in anger, with shouting and distorted faces! Always be careful, calm and controlled! THAT kind of discipline is what produces the men and women that God wants in His service!
Prov. 15:3 – I believe that if we carefully discipline as God describes in the Bible that our children will come away from it with a “merry heart which maketh a cheerful countenance.” Doing things God’s way always produces the RIGHT kind of fruit! It seems crazy to think that a child can come away from just being disciplined and be happy about it but I have seen it! When we do it in God’s way our children somehow react cheerfully (because it is what and how GOD wants!!) However, when done in the wrong way and with the wrong spirit our children’s spirit is broken by sorrow and THIS is what can lead to wrath in the heart of our little ones.
Prov. 17:22 – A merry heart will heal any and all wounds that a person has! Just as medicine makes a person feel better and cures ailments a merry heart cures any aliments of the spirit! BUT a broken spirit dries up the heart, makes it heard and unmoving to the Spirit of the Lord and His love.
Prov. 22:15 – A child is naturally driven toward sin. It is not natural to keep away from sin. Therefore God desire for parents is to correct them when necessary so that they are “driven far from it.” Again, all is done calmly, carefully and in a controlled manner but it needs to be done!
Prov. 29:15 – A lot of people would say that the “rod of correction” is what makes the children angry and builds resentment in their little hearts toward their parents. That is why we “shouldn’t use corporal punishment!” The world screams this at every opportunity! “It is wrong! “ they say, “It’s child abuse!!” God says that correction (when done correctly) brings about wisdom in a child! It makes the children see things as God sees through time! It builds them up into what God intends for them to become. But leaving a child to do as he pleases with little or no correction will end in shame! I don’t want that for my family!
Lord help me to ALWAYS correct my children as YOU show is correct in YOUR Word!! Keep me controlled and calm when the situations arise so that my children are brought closer to You through this and not provoked to wrath!!
Prov. 3:11-12 - Sometimes I’m sure that we just wish that the Lord would take a “vacation” from His chastisement. That He would just leave us alone when it comes to correcting us when we do wrong. However, God in His infinite wisdom, mercy and grace never gives to us what we don’t deserve and always what will better us as His servants. His chastening is a reminder of His great love for us!
Prov. 13:24 – I love my children and desire for them to grow up into men and women of strong character, faith and wisdom. I know that this world is full of things that Satan wants to use in order to stop just that from happening. I tell my little ones that the discipline that they receive from us is because we love them so much and want them to be well aware of the consequences of wrong choices and sin. I don’t like doing it, but know that it’s necessary. I do it because I love them-just as this verse from God’s Word tells us! Not disciplining, like the world encourages, produces self-centered, uncontrolled, disrespectful, and wicked adults. I don’t want that for my children! That is God’s reason for instilling chastisement. Now it is always, always, always to be done in a controlled and careful manner! Abuse is not what God encourages! God states clearly in His Word that we are not to provoke our children to wrath, which is what we do when we discipline in anger, with shouting and distorted faces! Always be careful, calm and controlled! THAT kind of discipline is what produces the men and women that God wants in His service!
Prov. 15:3 – I believe that if we carefully discipline as God describes in the Bible that our children will come away from it with a “merry heart which maketh a cheerful countenance.” Doing things God’s way always produces the RIGHT kind of fruit! It seems crazy to think that a child can come away from just being disciplined and be happy about it but I have seen it! When we do it in God’s way our children somehow react cheerfully (because it is what and how GOD wants!!) However, when done in the wrong way and with the wrong spirit our children’s spirit is broken by sorrow and THIS is what can lead to wrath in the heart of our little ones.
Prov. 17:22 – A merry heart will heal any and all wounds that a person has! Just as medicine makes a person feel better and cures ailments a merry heart cures any aliments of the spirit! BUT a broken spirit dries up the heart, makes it heard and unmoving to the Spirit of the Lord and His love.
Prov. 22:15 – A child is naturally driven toward sin. It is not natural to keep away from sin. Therefore God desire for parents is to correct them when necessary so that they are “driven far from it.” Again, all is done calmly, carefully and in a controlled manner but it needs to be done!
Prov. 29:15 – A lot of people would say that the “rod of correction” is what makes the children angry and builds resentment in their little hearts toward their parents. That is why we “shouldn’t use corporal punishment!” The world screams this at every opportunity! “It is wrong! “ they say, “It’s child abuse!!” God says that correction (when done correctly) brings about wisdom in a child! It makes the children see things as God sees through time! It builds them up into what God intends for them to become. But leaving a child to do as he pleases with little or no correction will end in shame! I don’t want that for my family!
Lord help me to ALWAYS correct my children as YOU show is correct in YOUR Word!! Keep me controlled and calm when the situations arise so that my children are brought closer to You through this and not provoked to wrath!!
Ephesians 5:15-20
March 23, 2010
Ephesians 5:15-20
I always have trouble uncovering the true meaning of these verses! There are some words that I don’t understand:
circumspectly
Redeem
“be not drunk with wine”
I think that I’ll need to pull out the Concordance so that I can better grasp what these verses are trying to tell me.
Circumspectly – akribos; ( an adjective from the Greek word “akribestatos” meaning “to be exact – most straightest) exactly-circumspectly, diligently, perfect (-ly).
Redeem – exagarozo; to buy up, i.e. ransom; to rescue from loss (improve opportunity):- redeem.
“Be not drunk with wine.” – methusko; to drink to intoxication. (From what I gather this is as stated, quite simply don’t get intoxicated. It controls the body and inhibits the mind from clear use.
So from what I’ve defined here:
“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,” means that we are to live our daily lives as perfectly as humanly possible. We are to be diligent at walking exactly as Christ has laid out for us in the Bible. This verse is encouraging us to live out our lives in a Christ-like manner! Now I see!!
“Redeeming the time because the days are evil” means that we are to rescue the time that we have here on earth from being wasted. It is so easy to just waste away the time that God has given us but He is telling us not to do this. We are to deliberately try to improve our “opportunities” for Christ while here on earth. We shouldn’t “let come what may” but rather make specific efforts (because that’s what it takes!) to do something for Christ everyday! That verse excites me!!!
I’ve already defined the drunkenness verse but the Bible goes on and says that instead of intoxication with the worlds offerings we are to be filled with the Spirit. How? By “Speaking to your selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Vs. 19, 20. (I'll touch on verse 20 in another post as that verse says so much all on its own!)
Being filled with the Spirit IS redeeming the time because in order to be filled with the Spirit we have to take specific, conscious steps. We don’t just “happen” to be filled with the Spirit, we purposely do it! WOW!! Thank You Lord for this understanding!!
What steps need to be taken? Bible reading (getting up and doing it), prayer, handling a matter with the children patiently, not allowing ourselves to get frustrated if hubby has left his shoes and socks on the floor…again, talking to that stranger at the park about Jesus, reaching out to another Sister in Christ who looks downtrodden.
None of these come naturally (at least not for me) so they are all things that we can do-and there’s more of course- in order to redeem the time and be filled with the Spirit!!
Ephesians 5:15-20
I always have trouble uncovering the true meaning of these verses! There are some words that I don’t understand:
circumspectly
Redeem
“be not drunk with wine”
I think that I’ll need to pull out the Concordance so that I can better grasp what these verses are trying to tell me.
Circumspectly – akribos; ( an adjective from the Greek word “akribestatos” meaning “to be exact – most straightest) exactly-circumspectly, diligently, perfect (-ly).
Redeem – exagarozo; to buy up, i.e. ransom; to rescue from loss (improve opportunity):- redeem.
“Be not drunk with wine.” – methusko; to drink to intoxication. (From what I gather this is as stated, quite simply don’t get intoxicated. It controls the body and inhibits the mind from clear use.
So from what I’ve defined here:
“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,” means that we are to live our daily lives as perfectly as humanly possible. We are to be diligent at walking exactly as Christ has laid out for us in the Bible. This verse is encouraging us to live out our lives in a Christ-like manner! Now I see!!
“Redeeming the time because the days are evil” means that we are to rescue the time that we have here on earth from being wasted. It is so easy to just waste away the time that God has given us but He is telling us not to do this. We are to deliberately try to improve our “opportunities” for Christ while here on earth. We shouldn’t “let come what may” but rather make specific efforts (because that’s what it takes!) to do something for Christ everyday! That verse excites me!!!
I’ve already defined the drunkenness verse but the Bible goes on and says that instead of intoxication with the worlds offerings we are to be filled with the Spirit. How? By “Speaking to your selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Vs. 19, 20. (I'll touch on verse 20 in another post as that verse says so much all on its own!)
Being filled with the Spirit IS redeeming the time because in order to be filled with the Spirit we have to take specific, conscious steps. We don’t just “happen” to be filled with the Spirit, we purposely do it! WOW!! Thank You Lord for this understanding!!
What steps need to be taken? Bible reading (getting up and doing it), prayer, handling a matter with the children patiently, not allowing ourselves to get frustrated if hubby has left his shoes and socks on the floor…again, talking to that stranger at the park about Jesus, reaching out to another Sister in Christ who looks downtrodden.
None of these come naturally (at least not for me) so they are all things that we can do-and there’s more of course- in order to redeem the time and be filled with the Spirit!!
Welcome
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psalm 90:12
If you were just given news from your doctor this morning that you only had 'x' amount of days to live what would your thoughts be? After the initial shock and saddness, what kind of plans would you begin making? What would your list of "important to do's" be?
I think that it's safe to say that we would all look at life differently today than we did yesterday. What would make the difference? The realization that our time is limited would drastically change how we view everything, from the smallest detail to the largest.
We would no longer be irritated by the little misgivings of our children. Instead we would instruct them gently and hold them closer. We would no longer be frustrated about our relaxing hubbies while we are slaving away at a sink full of dishes. Instead we would serve with pleasure. We would feel a renewed urgency to tell our neighbors of Christ's love and His offering of salvation.
Yes, we would all be changed, changed for the better. Well the Psalmist is showing us in Psalm 90:12 that he had a desire to have his days numbered (or to live with the knowledge of it) so that he could better live his life out with wisdom.
Our lives here are short. We have no knowledge of when Christ will return or when He will take us home yet our duty here on earth is great! We have children to train up, lost family, friends and neighbors to witness to.
Yet how well do we actually redeem the short time that we have? Do we spend more time decorating the interior of our homes than we do "decorating the interior spirit" of the little ones that God as placed in our homes? Do we spend more time surfing the web than we do the pages of God's book? Do we spend more time meditating on what new clothes we need than we do on the greatness of our Holy God?
Sisters I don't know about you but my desire as of late has mirrored that of the Psalmist! I want to live each day with the realization that my life here on earth is short. There is a lot to be done for Christ and I want to live my few days here as wisely as He enables me!!
The purpose of this blog is to share what God gives me with anyone out there who may desire to hear (read) it, to impart what little wisdom He gives me so that someone else may be encouraged to "number their days" so that their hearts to may be applied unto wisdom.
I am by no means a woman of great wisdom. I do not claim to be a Bible scholar or a great teacher of His precious Word. (I struggle with explaining simple truths to my little ones to be honest with you). I am simply an open vessel to be used as God sees fit.
Some days what you read here might be words of great wisdom that challenge, encourage and excited you to live your life closer to Christ. Other days you might close out this blog thinking, "Oh that lady really needs to find something else to do with her spare time!" But whatever you go away with please know that my only desire is to honor God and bless someone else each day.
There might be days in which I add long Bible studies and there might be days that I only add a verse or two. I may not even do this everyday (although that is my desire). My reality is that I am still a wife and homeschooling mother of 4 little ones who already has her plate full but is following the leading of the Spirit to begin this blog. So, please bear with me as I begin this journey of applying my heart unto wisdom. And join me as I slowly grow in the "grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (...and in blogging!!) ;)
Feel free to leave any comments you have at any time. Feel free to invite another who may be blessed by this blog.
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