Proverbs 1:17-19
Is he calling greedy people here “bird brain”?
Even a bird knows to avoid a trap that it sees being baited and set for it. Yet those who are striving for more selfish gain set a trap for themselves! In front of their own eyes! A bird has more sense than us when we do this.
So much hearkens to “watch and pray so you don’t enter into temptation.” Jesus told more than one parable about staying awake and being always alert. Awareness and self-examination are jugular to our Christ-following lives.
Awareness of the constant Presence of God.
Awareness of the constant Love of God.
Awareness of our own sin and sinful thoughts.
If you have no one in your life daily to help you with this, find someone. You WILL fall into your own traps.
Luke 18:9-14
“I do this, this, and this…” -Pharisee guy
“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” -tax collector
“I tell you, when this man went home, he was right with God, but the Pharisee was not. All who make themselves great will be made humble, but all who make themselves humble will be made great.”
-Jesus
Those who trust in any work or righteous standing of their own are screwed. Those with proper self-awareness of where they stand before God-totally & utterly dependent-they are the ones who will be vindicated by God.
The sacrifice God wants is a broken spirit. God, you will not reject a heart that is broken and sorry for sin. -Psalm 51:17
But God resists the proud. -James 4:6, I Peter 5:5
The Pharisee was blissfully ignorant of His own heart, setting that trap for himself.
All the good works you do, though beautiful and helpful, earn you nothing, no favor with God. All of that comes from His end. Yet at the same time, Scripture also tells us that we will one day be judged by what we have done. This is difficult to wrap our heads around. Perhaps we’re not meant to.
“If God can be fully proved by the human mind, then He would be no greater than the mind that proved Him.”
-Billy Graham
-Billy Graham
Christianity is the one religion of “Done” instead of “Do”.
We do because it’s been done.
We don’t do in order for anything to be done.
Make sense?