Proverbs 11:17,25

People characterized by covenant love benefit themselves, but cruel people harm their own bodies.

Those who bless will themselves be refreshed, and those who satisfy others will themselves be satisfied.

Here we have the paradox that living for others means a better life for self than living for self. Verse 25 does not specify whether what is given is help, money, or advice, so it may refer to all of these. We do indeed reap what we sow in every area of life.

“There is a harmony between enlightened self-interest and the common good.” -William McKane

Community and the individual are not always pitted against each other. I spend time alone in prayer and the Word not just for my own personal peace, which is fantastic of course, but also in order to be more of a benefit to others. And in benefitting others well, I am benefitted, and so on and so on…

Mark 14:3-9

“Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me?”

This is such a good picture of the principle to “perform for an audience of One.” This woman takes oil that costs the equivalent of what a common worker would earn in a whole year, and anoints Jesus with it.

She didn’t seem to care what anybody else there thought of it. She was focused on Jesus and expressing her love for Him. It hearkens to Luke 10:38-42 where Mary did the “one thing necessary” which was to pay attention to Jesus.

Jesus even affirms her extravagant act as opposed to using the money she could have sold the oil for to help the poor. There were probably many who were poor with no land in this area.

What I take from this is to always please Jesus over people. It will always be worth it. Keep your focus on Him more than people. More than any other person, and your life will be full.

Also, perhaps we can even glean the importance of loving Jesus more than loving acts of kindness or helping others. You will no doubt perform kind acts and help those in need if you truly love Jesus, so there is no need to love those acts more than Jesus Himself. It’s not difficult to fall in love with helping others, so always check to make sure you love God first, then people themselves, not just the act of helping people.

Loving God and loving others really helps people, because God’s supernatural love will be flowing thru you to them. And that is pretty amazing and transforming to the world.

Proverbs 10:8

Proverbs 9:3

Proverbs 8:34

“Happy are those who listen to Me, watching at my door everyday, waiting at my doorway.”

-Wisdom, Jesus

Mark 11:12-17

People had turned the Temple of God into a hideout for brigands, robbers.

The Temple would be destroyed. Jesus would be the Temple of God now, as well as everybody who puts their trust in Him.

We are portable sanctuaries.

Do we make our bodies a hideout for a thief? Usurping God’s authority, doing whatever we want, and not looking to do what God wants to do with us instead…?

Tuning in to God’s frequency shows you life so much deeper than the one of pleasing yourself, doing whatever you feel like doing. Until you experience it, it’s almost incomprehensible. How can doing what someone else wants be fulfilling? Because that “Someone Else” loves and knows you better than you love and know yourself. You know what you want. He knows what you need and deep down crave to be truly satisfied. And that, I dare say, is connection. God Himself.

He knows.

He gives.

Only when we approach Him as the only answer to our life with nothing holding us back from fully embracing Him. Let go of everything not God that you have a grip on and experience Life that really is life!

Proverbs 7:6-8

While I was at the window of my house,
    looking through the curtain,
 I saw some naive young men,
    and one in particular who lacked common sense.
 He was crossing the street near the house of an immoral woman,
    strolling down the path by her house

Foolish people walk close to the edge of sin.

How many times do we knowingly get close to what we know is wrong? If we were serious about killing off sin in our life, we would not go close to it. Wisely, we would keep far from it.

“Inordinate curiosity” as Thomas a Kempis called it.

I wonder how close I can get to that fire without getting burned.

You fool.

Mark 10:27

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.”

Nothing is impossible for God.

We rarely live this out day-to-day, living in total trust in His goodness and power.

It is lack of faith, I think, that holds back the hand of God so many times.

Lack of trust.

Trust.

He really loves you and He really can do anything.

Trust.

Just ponder the vast wonder of the universe for 10 seconds…..

Proverbs 6:25

Often,

what looks best

is most dangerous.

Be careful.

(The above picture came up when I googled “tempting but dangerous.” Cat Woman from the 1966 Batman series.)

Mark 9:19

Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this?

How often we fail to use the spiritual resources that have been graciously given to us, and that are right in front of us.

We have the power of faith to overcome the enemy. It is not a weapon of mere human design. It is supernatural power that must be cultivated accordingly. Not thru hard work and trying, but thru disciplined dependence.

Nothing great, real, or lasting is accomplished for God without prayer, for prayer taps in to the real, beyond-human power that is God’s limitless power. Whatever is done for God without the power of prayer, is done by our finite, much weaker human effort alone, and therefore, it is infinitely less effective.

The way to liberation and rest lies through a decision and a practice.

The decision is to release the world and your fate, including your reputation and “success,” into the hands of God. This is not a decision to not act at all, though in some situations it may come to that. It is, rather, a decision concerning how you will act: you will act in dependence on God. You will not take charge of outcomes. You will do your part, of course, but your part will always be chastened by a sense of who God is–not you!

A decision to release the world and our fate to God runs contrary to everything within and around us. We have been had by a system of behavior that was here before we were and seeps into every pore of our being. “Sin,” Paul tells us, “was in the world,” even before the law came. It forms us internally and pressures us externally. Hence we must learn to choose things that meet with God’s actions of grace to break us out of the system. These things are the disciplines of life in the Spirit, well known from Christian history but much avoided and misunderstood. For those who do not understand our desperate situation, these disciplines look strange or even harmful. But they are absolutely necessary for those who would find rest for their soul in God and not live the distracted existence Pascal so accurately portrays.

-Dallas Willard

Proverbs 5:12-13

You will say, “How I hated discipline!
    If only I had not ignored all the warnings!
 Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers?
    Why didn’t I pay attention to my instructors?

You don’t have to be that person who loses almost everything because you hated being told what to do.

You would not listen to correction.

You would not listen to your teachers or pay attention to your instructors.

God is teaching you thru so many means, so many people, perhaps ones you don’t even like. But listen anyway. Listen to and for God’s instruction thru them. If it helps, just listen to God and not them if they annoy you that much. It’s amazing how this changes your attitude toward someone! I believe Hannah [The Holy Spirit] is always speaking to us thru people and circumstances. Don’t miss great instruction just because you don’t care for someone. This is humbling, which is good, for God gives grace to the humble and draws close to them. He resists the proud.

Mark 8:33

“Get behind me, Accuser! You’re thinking human thoughts, not God’s thoughts.”

People are miserable when they’re focused on themselves and mere human thoughts.

People are joyful when they are focused on God, confident He knows what He is doing and is capable of carrying anything out He wants. And what He wants is always our good.

To think on God is to think the highest possible thoughts. Why think on anything less? Why aim lower?

I’ve always thought that if I decide to start using drugs, I’m just gonna start with shooting straight up heroin, you know? Go right to the hardcore, skip the amateur stuff. I mean, why waste time messing around with anything beneath the most powerful?

John 8:34-35

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin. A slave does not stay with a family forever, but a son belongs to the family forever.” 

Living for God and people outside yourself is the only way to live a fulfilling life.

Trying to make everything happen the way you want so you can be happy has not ultimately worked out that I’ve ever heard of. By trying to satisfy yourself, you actually become more empty, due to our design by our Creator. Conversely, living to please God is always, continually fulfilling. Living for God’s purposes paradoxically satisfies the self by forgetting the self.

Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart’s desires.

or

Take your primary delight in people or things and you might get your heart’s desires some of the time and some of the time you get your heart broken and sometimes you end up angry, empty, bitter, let down, disgusted…

Delight yourself first and foremost in God Himself, not what He can do for you. How can one be disappointed when their source of their happiness is infinite love?