June 7, 2024

Proverbs 14.10 (NIV)
Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.

Grief is an individual journey.*

Our inside is a lonely place. While I may have been through the exact experience you are having right now, I cannot share your exact feelings. I may understand your pain or your joy - I can relate to it; but I don’t have the rest of your life experience in common with you so I don’t know “exactly how you feel.” I only know exactly how I feel. Except sometimes I don’t even know that!

In I Corinthians 2.11 we read, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?” Don’t we know the answer to that? God knows our thoughts and feels our pain. I am unceasingly amazed that the Creator and Organizer of the Universe cares about my feelings. Even when I am shallow and petty, he cares enough to point it out to me and help me get over it.  When I take delight in something that I know that no one else will “get,” God gets it. He shares my joy – even when it’s silly.

The old song says, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.” I might add a verse that says, “Nobody knows the joy I’ve seen, either.” Except my Heavenly Father.

Something there is in every sorrow, and in every joy, which no one else can share.*

June 6, 2024

Proverbs 12.16 (NIV)
A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

Your position may be right and your anger may be righteous, but rage opens the door for Satan to win two victories.*

I bought an ornament for my sister one Christmas. When I got it home, I decided to take it out of the box and look at it. Good thing I did because the box was empty! So off to Hallmark I went. I was very annoyed when the clerk told me she couldn’t help me. She said they didn’t carry that product in their store. I got all huffy and said, “Well, I got it here.” Then her words sunk in and it hit me: I had bought the gift at the Christian bookstore.

No one insulted me during that incident but I was certainly an annoyed fool. I try to live by the advice in James 1.19: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” If I had followed those steps that day, I would have heard what the clerk was saying; I would not have said what I said (with my mouth and with my body language!); and I would have realized that I had nothing to be angry about. 

In my prideful desire to be the cleverest one in the room, I often say unkind and/or unnecessary things. Jesus, who had the Words of Life, prudently kept his thoughts to himself as he stood before his accusers (Matthew 27.12; Mark 14.60, 61; Luke 23.9). I pray that we can follow his example of saving our “clever” replies for the appropriate time and place.

The silence of the Lamb of God still speaks volumes.*

June 5, 2024

Proverbs 4.26 (NIV)
Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.

Our duty as Christians is always to keep heaven in our eye and the earth under our feet.*

One year, as Christmas was approaching, my co-workers were all a-twitter about how much they had to do before the holiday. Baking and shopping and wrapping and decorating and Christmas cards. “Who said you had to do all that?” I asked them. My point was that they were doing all those things because they chose to. If they weren’t getting joy from it, they needed to stop it. If they were enjoying it, they needed to quit stressing about it!

Are we supposed to look for the easy road - the one that doesn’t go uphill and is smoothly paved all the way? Ways that are firm – as opposed to muddy and swampy?What can we do to make level paths and firm ways for ourselves? The literal translation sheds some light on this proverb: “ponder the path.” Indeed! That might make things easier!  Think about where you’re going and perhaps you will choose better. We’re not promised an easy road but occasionally we choose the rough road when we don’t have to.

 

Solomon and I are not suggesting that we become people who are always looking for the easy way out. But what kind of statement do we make to the world if we continually choose poorly? And while it is wise to ponder our path, asking God to direct our choices is the ultimate in good sense (read Proverbs 3.5).

A wise course results from wise forethought.*

June 4, 2024

Proverbs 4.23 (NIV)

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Out of a heart well kept will flow . . . good products, to the glory of God and the edification of others.*

The word translated here as “heart” is not referring to the seat of emotion but the center of personality, decision, and understanding. It is often translated “judgment.” Solomon is advising us to guard the part of us that makes us who we are. In Matthew 12.34, Jesus said, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” The moral conduct of our lives – actions, attitude, and purpose – is determined by what we think and believe.

      

In Philippians 4.8, Paul lists some practical suggestions for protecting the heart/mind. (I hope you will read and apply them.) To paraphrase another writer: Protect your mind from vanity; your understanding from error; your will from perverseness. Keep your conscience clear of guilt and your affections from being captivated by evil. Train your mind to think heavenly thoughts. Do not let your heart fall into the hands of the enemy.*

It’s not enough to keep the bad stuff out. We’ve got to let the good stuff in.*

June 3, 2024

Proverbs 3.5, 6 (NIV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Having forfeited our confidence in God, we believe that in order to have the life we want, we must take matters into our own hands.*

Trust in the Lord: Taking that first step of trust is hard. “Give me a reason to trust,” you might say. Once you have trusted and you see that your confidence was not in vain, you find it much easier to trust again. Keep trusting and you will be able to graduate from baby steps to leaps of faith!

Lean not on your own understanding: Solomon is not telling us that our own understanding is worthless; it’s just not 100% reliable. The literal translation of this phrase is “do not prop yourself up.” If I prop myself up against a rickety wall that is about to fall down, it might hold me up as long as the conditions are right – no wind, no one else comes along to lean beside me. But if I lean against the solid rock – Jesus – I won’t fall down.

In all your ways acknowledge him: Literally, “in all your ways know him.” We must actively seek a personal awareness of God in every move we make. We should be conscious of the fact that we take him with us everywhere we go. Our godliness is a full-time occupation, not just something we do when we’re in church or during a crisis.

He will make your paths straight: As a reward for our faithfulness, Solomon says that God will make our paths straight. Does this mean that God will remove obstacles, flatten the hills, and straighten out the curves? Whatever he meant, we can be confident that God will walk with us and help us to stay on the path that leads to righteousness.

You must know him by living closely with him, relating to him personally in every aspect of your life.*

June 2, 2024

Psalm 150.6 (NIV)
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

If we could see how much you’re worth; your power, your might, your endless love, then surely we would never cease to praise you.*

The writers of Bible commentaries like to debate about whom/what the psalmist was speaking. Did he really mean everything that has breath? Animals and bugs? Could we not keep in mind that while the writer was inspired, he was also a poet? In spite of the sweet little stories about the farm animals kneeling at the manger in Bethlehem, I’m pretty sure that the psalmist is talking about humans. But . . .

Romans 1.19 says that what may be known about God is plain for us to see. Everything in creation is a testimony to God’s power. Beauty. Intricacy. Precision. Function. Even if the creature has no voice to say, “Praise the Lord,” God is praised by its existence. 

As for those of us who can speak, our voices “fulfill [their] highest function by praising [their] Creator.”* Let’s be like Peter and John in Acts 4.20 when they said, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

When the Pharisees asked him to rebuke his disciples for their exuberance, Jesus replied, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19.40)  Was Jesus being facetious or poetic? Or was he speaking literally? If the Creator wills it, even things without breath will praise the Lord!

The God of nature is not subject to the laws of nature.*

June 1, 2024

Psalm 147.3 (NIV)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

No profound healing can come apart from God.*

I’ve had my heart broken a few times. My childhood best friend decided she didn’t want to be friends anymore; my fiancé changed his mind about wanting to marry me; my first marriage failed; after 25 years, I lost the job I loved; my dad died. I don’t mean to down-play the gravity of my experiences - each one was painful for me, but, seriously, I have only read about real suffering.  

In this moment, in these words, the psalmist has validated my pain by reminding me that God hurts when I hurt. Even if I am crushed by something as inconsequential as being stood up by friends, God cares. The voice in my head that says, “You don’t have any right to be hurt over that!” is not God’s voice.

I am not making a case for shallow, petty pouting. When I am hurt by the thoughtlessness of others, I know that God will comfort me and help me to rise above it rather than wallow in my self-pity. When real heartbreak comes, I can count on my heavenly Father to let me cry on his shoulder and provide me with supernatural consolation. When God heals our broken hearts and binds up our wounds, he doesn’t leave us scarred. He makes us stronger.

Jesus knows how you feel.*