My Month in Proverbs, Part 5

I messed up so badly. I promised you all an edited version of my flash fiction last Friday, and I didn’t deliver. I am very sorry. Life has been a little crazy, so it’s going to have to wait a little longer, unfortunately.

Today, however, I do have a Proverbs post for you. You can catch up with Parts 1-4 by clicking here.

Proverbs 21:13 “Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered.”

God, I don’t know how you want me to touch the poor. I want to be wise, and I know that not all methods of “giving” actually help some people. But I don’t want to live with a closed-off heart, either. Give me an open, gentle heart, Lord, and direct me where that will serve your kingdom.

Proverbs 22:10 “Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.”

Though this passage speaks of a specific person, I was struck by the application to my own heart. “Drive out the mocker.” There is no place for a harsh, critical, mocking spirit in our lives. Satan is the source of all those things. We should have a gentle, uplifting spirit. That comes from God. The more we run after Him, the less room there is in our hearts for Satan and his lies. We need God to drive out the mocker in our own hearts and replace it with Himself.

Proverbs 23:4-5 “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wrings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”

Our culture values wealth so highly. And even those who hate the rich are still trying to get more and more. We want all the wrong things, and we sacrifice the right things in our “pursuit of happiness.” We’ve gone so mad that we push thankfulness out of the way in our crazy rush to get more stuff. During November, Verizon literally had a commercial that called the holiday “Thanksgetting.” It made me sick. People strive so hard for these things. Yet, in the end, it will all crumble into dust. I want to pursue the things that last: forming relationships, giving blessings, and sharing God’s love. After all, those are the real riches.

Proverbs 24:10 “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!”

Strength is not strength when left untested. How do you know someone is physically strong unless they are tested under pressure? The same goes for inner strength. It’s easy to have the loudest faith in the room when everything’s going your way. But when things fall down around us, it’s the quiet ones who stay. It’s the ones whose strength comes from Someone else. True strength is revealed under fire, but it’s not our strength. Our strength can’t hold up under pressure. We crack. True strength comes from God and flows through our weakness.

Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”

We rarely know things instantaneously. We have questions. Lots of them. Yet I wonder if God sometimes hides the answers on purpose. Jesus said to ask, seek, and knock. And here Solomon says to “search out a matter.” There are things we will never understand. It’s the very nature of God: He’s so much bigger than we can comprehend. But He doesn’t want us to sit around, passively accepting the first explanation we hear. He wants us to be truth-seekers. He wants us to active. After all, He has made us royalty.

So, what did you you think of these verses? Let me know in the comments!