Proverbs 15:8
The prayer of the upright delights the LORD.
Have you ever thought that you can delight God?
God can of course bring you joy and peace, but did you know that you can actually bring Him delight?
He likes you. He loves for you to come to Him and spend time with Him and just talk to Him. He delights in this. I’ve found it very tranquil to just share my day with Him and then run thru the day’s events with Him before falling asleep at nite, thanking Him for all the goodness of the day of which there is always much.
Before sleeping, I read a couple of entries from He And I by Gabrielle Bosis. I cannot recommend this work highly enough for tranquil resting in peace. It is filled with loving and affirming words she heard from “The Voice” over the last fifteen years or so of her life. The Voice, she says, was that of Christ. It’s amazing, powerful.
Proverbs 15:15
All the days of the poor are hard, but those with a cheerful heart have a continual feast.
Some brutal honesty is usually helpful. It sucks being poor. It sucks to struggle. It just does. Yet at the same time, your thinking determines your happiness and satisfaction more than your circumstances. If you have a happy heart that continually looks to God for everything, you can be always satisfied, always content.
Seek first the kingdom of God and everything you need will be supplied. Focus more on God than your problems.
Focus on problems=misery
Focus on God=joy and shalom
Many people prefer the certainty of misery over the misery of uncertainty.
Proverbs 15:21
Don’t be surprised when people are enjoying folly. They don’t know what they don’t know. They’ve sadly not experienced a better way, a better life, life in Christ. Perhaps they’ve heard of this, but have never seen it modeled. So why would they seek something they really know nothing much of?
Who is in your life that you can be a light to? Who are you modeling the joyful life in Christ for? Who will you affect today? How will you affect them?
Proverbs 15:28
Good people think before they answer.
They take the time to study how to answer.
John 8:28
You will know that these things I do are not by my own authority but that I say only what the Father has taught me.
How we should emulate this success model Jesus has lived out on earth (as in heaven) for us!
Every morning I work hard to listen to God thru His Scripture. I make every effort to focus more on God than the words on the page so that I may hear what He would say to me each day, what He has to teach me. This is effort to be sure, but I feel it is very important. The point is to hear from God, not study a book. Tho study has its place and is good, I think it should be done in a mode of listening to the Father.
We do not grow by approaching God and His word with our preconceived notions and our own thoughts of what it is conveying, but rather The person who accepts God accepts what God says (v.47). And this is where study has its place. Theology is a good thing, for it is simply the study of God. So we grow most with a teachable spirit, open and willing to learn what God would teach us even if we don’t love it or the method He uses, which many times is suffering of some kind.
Acceptance.
Acceptance is so key to this life.
Acceptance of what is.
Acceptance of yourself.
In Christ, God accepts you. So why wouldn’t you accept you? He loves you the way you are, but doesn’t want you to stay there. He wants to grow you into His Son.
Let’s start today to work at speaking what we slowly and thoughtfully hear more than what we quickly think in a reactionary or even obscurantist manner.