Skip to main content

Daily Devotion: Proverbs 17:16

By

Proverbs 17:16    "Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?"

I believe it was President George W. Bush who said, "I have a library full of books and I've even read one or two of them."  I, personally, have paid gym memberships on more than one occasion, but that didn't help me unless I actually went to the gym and exercised.  Solomon is saying that we can spend all kinds of money on equipment, instructions, lessons, memberships, or anything else that we feel will help us, but there is no advantage to all that if we do not apply them. Why would I spend money, time, and effort on something if my heart is not set upon improvement.  I can read my Bible every single day, but there is no improvement for me if I do not apply my heart to using what I read. I remember one of the passages that we used when we were going through the Psalms that said, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed..." (Psalm 57:7) One of the definitions that we used for the word, "fixed," means to set or establish our hearts for a particular purpose. We will see in a future Proverb that God says, "Give me thine heart, my son..." (Proverbs 23:26) The positive side of today's passage tells us that God will honor our endeavors if we will put our heart, our determination, into getting wisdom.  I will conclude today with the passage from the book of James: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." (James 1:5)  Let us set our affections on things above and God's wisdom will be given.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Daily Devotion: Psalm 88:1-4

By
Psalm 88:1-4  A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. "O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:  (2)  Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;  (3)  For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.  (4)  I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength" I've said this before and I will say it again (and probably more times before we get to the end of the Psalms) - I love the Psalms because I can surely identify with them. Most Psalms start in a low place and as the writer expresses his thoughts, the Lord begins to lift him up out of that dry place.  Though this entire Psalm is a fervent cry unto the Lord, the Psalmist tells us specifically in three verses that he cried daily unto the Lord. Just a few Psalms ago, we were reminded that God always hears our prayers. ...
Read more

Daily Devotion (Video): I Will Fear No Evil - Psalm 23:4

By
Read more

Daily Devotion: Knowing God By Bearing Fruit

By
Some will notice the title is not “Bearing fruit because we know God,” so to avoid getting sidetracked with that, we can start with the fact that we won’t bear any godly fruit unless our heart has been changed and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Also, to avoid confusion, I’ll be using the terms “bearing fruit,” “good works” and “service” interchangeably.  I took this article’s title from Part 7, of John Piper’s “Look at the Book” session on Colossians 1:9-12. I greatly encourage you to view that short video to get his excellent exposition on this subject.  When I saw the title of the video earlier this year, I got kind of excited because that’s the direction my thinking has gone in the past several years. My thinking was founded Biblically with verses on good works like Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven.” But I couldn’t expand it to expla...
Read more