702AFC011207
Last week I encouraged you to meditate on Prov 3:5-6. Today I want to add a couple of other verses (Prov 3:5-8) and share my thoughts with you. It’s a long one, so my apologies in advance.
Proverbs 3:5-8
“5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. 7. Do not be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn your back on evil. 8. Then you will gain renewed health and vitality.”
—————————————–
Have you ever had a difficult decision or an important choice to make and wished you knew how to make the right choice with certainty? Of course you have! We have all been through that. It is an essential part of human life to decide. We are created to be choosers. We call it free will. It is one aspect of our lives that demonstrates we are created in God’s image. The difficulty arises because we are unsure about whether or not we can trust ourselves to make that decision correctly, and that is recognition that we really don’t know everything after all. You may recall something I wrote for you several years ago, “If you really knew as much as you think you know, you’d know it’s not enough.” Well, something to that effect anyway.
Our ability to choose is a gift from God. It is He who knows what is best for us because only He knows everything about us. Everything. He has given us intellect, reason, knowledge, and we can use those attributes to gain understanding and wisdom. That’s good if we recognize that our understanding wisdom will be imperfect because it will always be incomplete.
Even though our understanding and wisdom is imperfect, it can still be enhanced by conferring with wise counselors, and even more so by God’s word both in print and as spoken in our hearts. This is what we call, “Seeking God’s Will.” I’m thinking back to another previous message about what we want from God. It seems that for the most part men want to know the mind of God and women want to know the heart of God. God wants US to forget about that stuff and focus on the Love of God. He encourages us to give Him primacy in all things — a difficult task for us because we are generally more inclined to give primacy to ourselves.
When we focus on ourselves more than on God, our values and priorities are skewed toward temporal things rather than eternal joy. In another passage in Proverbs (16:1-3), we read
1. We can gather our thoughts, but the Lord gives the right answer. 2. People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. 3. Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed.
The cool part is that these ideas apply to ALL our plans and ALL our decisions. When God is an integral part of everything we do, success — doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason with the right outcome — is the result. =Even when we do wrong things or things wrong, we can DECIDE to change that. I know there are moments in my past which demonstrate that I can be spectacularly and tragically wrong. But I also know that God’s infallible integrity is the basis of his justice as well as his love. Because of that justice and love, there is mercy, and from mercy comes hope. Hope leads to faith, and faith unites us with the heart and mind of God.
Now, if you’re tired of my preachy Aloha Friday cards, you can choose to delete them. They may or may NOT RESONATE with your life, and so you can ignore them. From time to time I just find this bubbling up inside of me because of the joy I feel. Sharing that bubbling and that joy with YOU just seems like the right thing to do. Thank you for your love, and especially for your patience with this note. May God richly bless you and everything you think, say, or do. He will, you know, whenever He is part of every though, word, and deed. And even if something goes terribly wrong, even if your decisions are unfruitful, He will always return to restore order whenever you invite Him.
Aloha nui loa kakou!
chick
702AFC011207
Last week I encouraged you to meditate on Prov 3:5-6. Today I want to add a couple of other verses (Prov 3:5-8) and share my thoughts with you. It’s a long one, so my apologies in advance.
Proverbs 3:5-8
“5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. 7. Do not be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn your back on evil. 8. Then you will gain renewed health and vitality.”
—————————————–
Have you ever had a difficult decision or an important choice to make and wished you knew how to make the right choice with certainty? Of course you have! We have all been through that. It is an essential part of human life to decide. We are created to be choosers. We call it free will. It is one aspect of our lives that demonstrates we are created in God’s image. The difficulty arises because we are unsure about whether or not we can trust ourselves to make that decision correctly, and that is recognition that we really don’t know everything after all. You may recall something I wrote for you several years ago, “If you really knew as much as you think you know, you’d know it’s not enough.” Well, something to that effect anyway.
Our ability to choose is a gift from God. It is He who knows what is best for us because only He knows everything about us. Everything. He has given us intellect, reason, knowledge, and we can use those attributes to gain understanding and wisdom. That’s good if we recognize that our understanding wisdom will be imperfect because it will always be incomplete.
Even though our understanding and wisdom is imperfect, it can still be enhanced by conferring with wise counselors, and even more so by God’s word both in print and as spoken in our hearts. This is what we call, “Seeking God’s Will.” I’m thinking back to another previous message about what we want from God. It seems that for the most part men want to know the mind of God and women want to know the heart of God. God wants US to forget about that stuff and focus on the Love of God. He encourages us to give Him primacy in all things — a difficult task for us because we are generally more inclined to give primacy to ourselves.
When we focus on ourselves more than on God, our values and priorities are skewed toward temporal things rather than eternal joy. In another passage in Proverbs (16:1-3), we read
1. We can gather our thoughts, but the Lord gives the right answer. 2. People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. 3. Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed.
The cool part is that these ideas apply to ALL our plans and ALL our decisions. When God is an integral part of everything we do, success — doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason with the right outcome — is the result. =Even when we do wrong things or things wrong, we can DECIDE to change that. I know there are moments in my past which demonstrate that I can be spectacularly and tragically wrong. But I also know that God’s infallible integrity is the basis of his justice as well as his love. Because of that justice and love, there is mercy, and from mercy comes hope. Hope leads to faith, and faith unites us with the heart and mind of God.
Now, if you’re tired of my preachy Aloha Friday cards, you can choose to delete them. They may or may NOT RESONATE with your life, and so you can ignore them. From time to time I just find this bubbling up inside of me because of the joy I feel. Sharing that bubbling and that joy with YOU just seems like the right thing to do. Thank you for your love, and especially for your patience with this note. May God richly bless you and everything you think, say, or do. He will, you know, whenever He is part of every though, word, and deed. And even if something goes terribly wrong, even if your decisions are unfruitful, He will always return to restore order whenever you invite Him.
Aloha nui loa kakou!
chick
About Chick Todd
American Roman Catholic reared as a "Baptiterian" in Denver Colorado. Now living on Kauaʻi. USAF Vet. Married for over 50 years. Scripture study has been my passion ever since my first "Bible talk" at age 6 in VBS.
