johnmarkharris.net

Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you.
Tie them around your neck;
   write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will find favor and high regard
   with God and people.

Being the kind of person people can count on reveals godly character. When you say you will do something, going beyond simply getting it done, and crossing all the “t” and “i”s makes you the kind of person people like to be associated with. This also gives you an opportunity to let the Lord shine through your life. Be a “get ‘er done” kind of person.

My son, if you accept my words
   and store up my commands within you,
listening closely to wisdom
   and directing your heart to understanding;
furthermore, if you call out to insight
   and lift your voice to understanding,
if you seek it like silver
   and search for it like hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
   and discover the knowledge of God.

What is the purpose of your life? Is it to accomplish something? Build a family, save some money, educate your kids, get a second home, retire and travel? All good things. Is it to know who God is? Also good… but if you don’t actually live different, what’s the point of your life? What will be different because you were here and what makes the world better? Having kids who have successful careers won’t mean much if they simply mail it in at church and put more focus on sports or school. If they don’t have a genuine relationship with Jesus, if he’s not really the center of their life (what the Bible calls ‘Lord’) then how comforting will it be to know they retired a millionaire with a great sports career that paid their way through an Ivy League school, yet Jesus says “depart from me, I never knew you” Accept the words of the Scriptures. Don’t just know what the Bible says, live by them. Seek the hidden treasure of God, store up his commands for action. Live as though it is true. It doesn’t help you one bit to know the good news, if you live the same as before you heard it. Listen closely to wisdom, direct your heart to understanding, not just knowing… doing. Be different.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.

As brilliant as we might think we are, as much as we can create, and as much as we are impressed with ourselves, if we do not begin with a humble submission to the Lord’s instruction, we will end up off the rails and going off into a ditch. When someone comes to you with a criticism, receive it with gladness. The goal of our life is not for us to always be “right,” but for us to end up on the side of what is right. We must be willing to bend and change to conform ourselves to the truth, not try to simply prove we are right. God is God and we are not. Fear the Lord, trust him, have a deep respect and honor for him… don’t be a fool.

A person’s heart plans his way,
   but the Lord determines his steps.

“Just follow your heart” is terrible advice. On the one hand, your desires can be a great motivation for your life. In fact, God frequently uses our own passions to direct our paths, but we must be sure what we are actually doing is the right channel for what our heart is driving us to do. A love of one particular thing can drive us in many different directions. Use your emotions as a drive for what you do, but do what is God’s will for your life.

For the last month of the summer, I’m going to be posting here at the blog a proverb a day. It’s a long standing practice of mine to read the proverb which corresponds to that days date. So, July 1st we will read Proverbs 1, and on July 31st we’ll read Proverbs 31.

I’ll take just a snippet from each chapter, each day, and write a few thoughts about it. This is meant to serve as a reminder to read the whole proverb that day.

I always get so much wisdom from the proverbs… let’s read them together!