Flip through the pages of my bible and you will find lots of pen markings. Some of my latest markings take up residence in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs was mostly written by Solomon and tells how Godly wisdom is entwined in every day life. So much good stuff in there!!!!! I highly recommend it. ;) Here are some of my notes and what stood out to me personally.
From the book of Proverbs (NIV)
4:1 "Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding."
I am easily distracted. Whether it be at home or work or wherever, it happens. This world is distracting, sooooo distracting and that makes it really hard a lot of the time to focus on God. How can you counteract a lack of focus?
4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
When a jealous person tries to congratulate someone for an award they wanted, its hard. Just like this verse says we need to guard our hearts above all else. Anger, jealousy, lying all hardens a heart. When a heart is hardened it is hard to feel love. God is love. If we have no love, then life is a very hard and sometimes impossible thing to live.
7:2 "Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye."
(Side note: Remember this is King Solomon talking)
If something needs to be guarded that implies that thing is important/precious/holds value. A king has knights, a bank has a security alarm system, we have locks on our front doors. With something of that nature someone else will see the value in it too and many will try to steal it. This is exactly how the Enemy is. He tries to steal our hearts so that we cannot get closer to God. Now that I'm typing this up, this verse and verse 4:23 above really go hand-in-hand. I see what happened just there ;) The enemy will do anything to push you further and further away from God. For example, last year I went on a mission trip to India. RIGHT from the beginning there were problems. I had the hardest time raising all of the money to go. I struggled with lots of doubt on whether or not I should even go and why I even wanted to go. Then, more than halfway to the airport I could not find my wallet, I had my passport but no wallet. To make matters even worse when we went to board the plane, my ticket was the only one that wasn't working and I had to wait until everyone else had boarded to see what was happening. I was ready to turn and go home. But, my ticket cleared. I found my wallet when we landed in India. And most importantly, I saw some of the purest forms of worship in my life. Nothing but them and Jesus.... The point is, The Enemy tried very hard to prevent me from going. Going to India was a major step in my relationship with God. He'll do anything to push us away from God. But here is the thing, while we do need to be on guard for what the Enemy will try and do, God has already won. So we don't need to have any fear. None of it. God has our backs!! Amen!
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