Ginger Grotts
Ginger Corbet Grotts·Saturday, June 13, 2020·
In my life I have surely experienced the Lord’s discipline. I assume you have to. It has been accompanied by both pain and anxiety. It is some of the most heart wrenching stuff. It is described in this section of Proverbs with words like: chastening, rebuke, scourges, and subjection. I have not come running to the Lord asking, “ Gimme some of that stuff.” Have you ?
Proverbs 3:5-6 are our memory verses. It is often the mantra I hear from people;
“Trust in The Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
I truly want the Lord to tell me how to proceed. I can understand and I believe in having faith and trusting the Lord. I have no problem acknowledging Him. It’s the “lean not on your own understanding.” What? Huh? If I can’t use what I “understand” then my mind is no good???? I thought using my mind to make good decisions, was what I was supposed to do – what I was taught?
I had the honor to spend 7 years of my life working closely, 6 hours a day, 5 days per week, with people with chronic mental illness: Schizophrenia. Bi-Polar Disorder. Severe Depression (These diseases all can cause some delusional beliefs and behaviors.) But, I was heartened to find their faith. When I introduced prayer to the program they were actually relieved. These people who because of their illness could not “lean on their own understanding” had incredible faith in the Lord. These people had some doozies of delusions. One heard voices and thought that he was under the mind control of a prisoner in a Kansas prison. No amount of “reality” could change his mind. It was his “understanding”. So how many of our understandings are delusional ? Some. I have certainly been under some false impressions. Do you have things that you have believed in the past – that were wrong? I have learned to stay in God’s Word & in prayer & in Christian fellowship. I miss our fellowship in SS Class. I have always been affected and effected by those I was spending my time with. Choose wisely who you spend time with, which many learned first hand during the quarantine .
Proverbs 3:11,12 “My son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:5-7 quotes those verses and adds “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons;….” Then in Heb. 12:9 “Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live ?” 10 “…… that we may be partakers of His holiness.” 11 “….., afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Can we get here from there ? Yeah, I want some of that stuff.
Proverbs is said by our book to be “Not absolute promises, but true principles.” So let’s go to the N.T. and get the absolute promise. Philippians 4:19-20 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Therefore, He will provide me wisdom and understanding. Return to Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, …” Prov. 15:33 “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, And before honor is humility.”
Reverence & Fear = (n) revere. respect. admire. (adj) acclaim. high regard. high esteem. That’s what I want to do toward God and His Word..
Reverence & Fear’s opposite, antonyms for reverence & fear = dishonor. disrespect. disregard. hate. condemnation. criticism. dislike. disdain. scorn. The media are certainly reporting those toward Christianity. Do we slip into these behaviors ourselves, of course we can- when we do not concentrate on God’s wisdom.
Wisdom: The point in “treasure my commands” are not in the sense of his personal decrees but as God’s word that we internalize and make personal. “So as we read Proverbs 2:1 – 5. we see these words: receive. treasure. incline. apply. cry out. lift up the voice. seek. search. “All indicate desire, expressing itself in devotion” (Morgan) Brothers & Sisters without this effort to seek out wisdom — we will lack / be deficient / fall short in our fear & reverence of the Lord and in knowledge of God. But when we do, then (verses 2:5-9) God gives wisdom, shields, guards, preserves, and you usually get good path.
After a while a good or bad path becomes a rut. Sometimes ruts turn bad. As those who have lived on dirt roads know: there are good ruts and bad ruts. Both are hard to get out of. Early in our marriage, I usually got off at 5pm. Ginger worked late. So, I would drop off at our neighborhood bar and have a couple beers to ease anxiety – instead of going to an empty house which caused me anxiety. I was under “my understanding and false impressions” that it was a good path for me. It got so, even if Ginger was not working late, I would still go to the bar. That lead to many of the bad things we hear are common. I was in a bad path /rut and I needed the Lord’s help to get out of it. I lost 5 very close family members to death one at a time. My drinking became heavy and the Lord confronted me through Godly people. God chastened me. He rebuked me. It felt like scourging. So, I got help. Everytime I felt like drinking, I would start walking and repeating the Lord’s Prayer until it passed. I have not drank alcohol since 1988. I seldom miss it, but still the thought strikes; that’s when I have learned to turn to the Lord and away from my selfish desires for false relief. verse 2:10 and I let “wisdom enter your (my) heart”.
Bridges said, “The heart is the first thing that wanders away from God, and it is the first thing that returns to God.” So we need to keep our heart focused on fear / reverencing God.
One other point. verse 3:9 “Honor the Lord with your possessions,….” In the late 1990’s I got into a financial pickle. I had over $10,000 of medical debt that I couldn’t seem to get paid off or even down. I made the decision that I would apply my tithe to that debt – because God didn’t want me in debt. At the end of almost a year, I still had that $10,000 debt load. I realized my mistake and repented to the Lord and resumed tithes. Within a few short months the debt was somehow paid off. What a lesson. I don’t believe in “prosperity preaching”, you can’t get rich by over-giving. But I learned that it was true for me “to Honor the Lord with your possessions.”.
I’ll close with this from Brother Charles Stanley. “In this life, tests come in all shapes and sizes. Some we anticipate; others blindside us. Some tests require us to endure; others involve making the right decision immediately. Regardless of the difficulty, God instructs us to come to Him for the wisdom we so desperately need.”
I have found that doing it all the time can work so much better than in the middle of a crisis. Let’s keep the faith, shown through our discipline. Remember that God has loving kindness toward YOU. God is so good. Amen.
Next week we will look at Proverbs 3:21 to 4:10. Read it and your Personal Lesson Guide. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Pray for us – we are praying for YOU.