Some gems Proverbs 3-10

There are some lovely gems in the book of Proverbs.  Here are some of my favourites.  What are some of yours?

 

Prov. 3: 5, 6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  Lean on God, the source of all intelligence and the great Shepherd.

 

Prov. 4: 12 “When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.”  Security is ours when we put our hand in God’s and use wisdom in all our endeavours.

 

Prov. 5: 15 “Drink waters out of thine own cistern...”  The grass is not greener on the other side.  Be grateful for what you have and look for the blessing right there in your own back yard.

 

Prov. 6: 6 “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” Isn’t this vivid!!  What good lessons we learn from observing and being AWAKE to the animal kingdom at work.

 

Prov. 7 reminds me of Joseph strong stand in not being seduced by Pharoah’s wife.  I guess we can be seduced in many ways and so we humbly stand firm with God and trust that all God’s intelligent creation is upright and pure.

 

Prov. 8: 22, 23 “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.  I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.”  Eternity has nothing to do with time.  Our real spiritual being has nothing to do with time.

 

Prov. 8: 30 “...I was daily his delight...”  Oh – how comforting is this!

 

Prov. 9: 6 “Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.”

 

Prov. 9: 9 “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom...”  That ties in with the first section of this week’s Bible Lesson on “Sacrament” where we are encouraged to worship God as universal good, the “altogether lovely”.  We are also told that to understand God “is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by M.B. Eddy p. 3: 15).

 

Prov. 10: 4 “...the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”  At the testimony meeting I attended this evening we heard many astonishing testimonies, one of which spoke of the depth of joy which is ours from God and which sometimes comes when we seem to have been through the worst possible circumstances.  The testifier spoke particularly of a passage from Psalm 57 i.e. “awake up my glory” in relation to this spiritually exalting feeling of joy.  This joy makes us truly rich.

 

Prov. 10: 20 “The tongue of the just is as choice silver...”  What we say, counts.  So let’s choose our words wisely!

 

Prov. 10: 22 “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it.”  As this week’s Bible Lesson is all about blessings, this is a lovely additional promise to us all.

 

We watched the International Space Station zooming through the sky the other night from our boat here on the Queensland coast.  How extraordinary it was to trace its path across the star-lit night.  The Bible is a bit like that – its messages shine out and speed our journey beyond the earthly to the realm of new possibilities.  I’m so grateful.

Julie Swannell