(If you got an email with jibberish at the top I am sorry. It was my notes....before I typed the study. I forgot to take my notes off! There are a couple that will get them and think I am crazy because they don't even look at the blog but they study along everyday. Oops!)
Before we read today's passage, let's think about yesterday's for a moment. Yesterday's passage was focused on the negative. " Do not do 'this or that' or this or that bad thing will happen."
If you need to, review the first part of Chapter 5 again.
Now read Proverbs 5: 15-23.
So if yesterday was all about avoiding the negative...the adulterous....what is today's passage about? I'll answer for you. It is about focusing on the blessings that you have...in this passage it is about focusing on the wife.
Let's look a bit closer at verses 15--18 for a moment. I know that some of you are very new to reading your Bible and sometimes it can be very confusing at first! This passage is not talking about a literal well, but rather is using the well, and water as an example that you need to fulfill your needs with what you already have. There is no need to look elsewhere for satisfaction.
God has blessed us with clear instruction on how to avoid the things in which he told us to avoid. The Bible is full of God's positive instruction on how to avoid sin from the Old Testament to the New Testament. You all had a very nice discussion going after yesterday's passage. So after reading yesterdays passage we know the the dangers of the temptation, and after reading today's passage we know that we will find satisfaction in the blessing that God has already given us.
I close with an illustration. When a farmer goes to plow his field, he picks an item at the very far other end of the field and focuses on that item. If he keeps his eye on the item, by the time he gets to that end of the field, he will have plowed a straight line. But if he moves his focus...for even a moment, something distracts him and takes his attention away from that focal point, then when he gets finished and looks back...his row will not be straight.
Keep that focus where it should be...and your path to Christ will be straight.
I like verse 15 very much. And I need to write it on my forehead and put it on my door posts! Be thankful and enjoy what I have instead of always wanting more.
ReplyDeleteAnd I like verse 21. It reminds me that whatever I do, say, or think, God sees it. He observes all my paths. If I am yearning for something I don't have, I'm not focusing on Him, now am I? Because I DO have Him!
Isn't it something that we think we can hide things from God? Just like Adam and Eve in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI think we are all guilty of wishing for more. You are so right, Belinda, verse 15 needs to be drilled into our brains. At least in my brain!
It is so true I need to have that written on the inside of my glasses so only I can see it.
ReplyDeleteGod gives me such a peace when I am content in ALL things. I am so glad I was not raised in a "rich" family. I am not sure I would be where I am today (spiritually). Thanks God. He knows us so well.
Cyndi, you are so right that God knows so well. Usually I forget about that part. I was raised in a very wealthy family, but there was no love in that home. Today I have come full circle and I want not a thing to do with wealth. I never thought about it before that perhaps one of the reasons I was raised in that situation is so that I would be content in my today situation. Oh, of course, I do want THINGS...especially related to quilting...but I am trying very very hard not to...which is why that verse is written on a sticky note on my computer today. To remind me :)
ReplyDeleteI like verse 21 because it says he will die for lack of self control. That it's what it all comes down to our lack of self control whether it's food, shopping, or not being content with what God has given us.
ReplyDeleteUgh, Jennifer. You mean chocolate too, don't you?
ReplyDelete