PRESERVED BY WISDOM

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

Proverbs 2:9-22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There’s little questioning that the primary focus of Solomon’s early writing in the Book of Proverbs is on the matter of wisdom, not wisdom that comes from man but rather the divine wisdom that only comes from the Lord.

As we look at today’s passage, we find divine wisdom once again on center stage, this time in a way we all need to embrace if we expect to survive living in a world full of entrapments and enticements.

I say this because there are many benefits of divine wisdom but the one we need to cling to the most is that it preserves us. Look again at the words of Solomon on this matter:

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

This world we live in presents to us many paths to travel. There is no shortage of options to follow, no scarcity of choices we need to make. We need to have a proper guide, a spiritual GPS if you may, to guide us onto the right course and help us navigate away from potential sinful pitfalls we will encounter along the journey.

Divine wisdom is such a guide, a guide that the Lord uses to deliver us and preserve us from transgression.

Our scripture tells us that those who follow divine wisdom are known as righteous and blameless. In understanding fully what is right and just and fair, they find themselves watched over and protected in the land the Lord provides them. They walk every good path because they have accepted divine wisdom into their heart, mind, and soul.

One important by-product of this, of inviting and receiving divine wisdom into every fiber of our being, is that we gain discretion which we read will protect and guard us. Discretion saves us from falling into sin and our passage gives us the following examples to underscore this truth:

1. Divine wisdom and the discretion it brings will save us from the ways of wicked men and women.

There is no shortage of evil, sinful people in the world, those that Satan, our enemy, is having his way with. They do not travel in the Lord’s ways because the Lord would have nothing to do with the crooked, wicked paths that sinners travel. These people walk on dark roads, use perverse language, delight in doing wrong, and rejoice in the deviousness and depravity of evil.

Satan will try his best to influence you toward joining the ways of wickedness. Do not underestimate his power to control you and direct you into sin. Only the Lord’s power and strength is greater and it’s when we turn to Him and seek His wisdom on all of life’s matters that we find discretion that keeps us from joining the ranks of the wicked.

2. Divine wisdom and the discretion it brings will save us from adulterous behavior.

Perhaps there is no greater seduction operating in our world today than sexual immorality. Everywhere we turn, we are bombarded with sexual promiscuity and suggestion. Pornography has trapped many in the bondage of sexual sin which too often leads to the unfaithfulness and disloyalty of adultery.

Our only rescue is divine wisdom and the prudence it carries. When we seek it and receive it, we will be saved from the wayward man or woman with his or her seductive words, those who have chosen to ignore God in their life and opt for sin instead. It makes sense, right? Choose to be unfaithful and disloyal to God and you’ll end up unfaithful and disloyal in very other area of your life, particularly in your relationships. And this way will only lead you to destruction and death, maybe not so much so physical death but think about how many marriages have died because of adulterous behavior.  Nothing good comes out of adultery or any other sexual misconduct for that matter. It has not been nor will it ever be of God, only Satan.

Friends, thanks be to God for the power and blessing of divine wisdom. Every day when we come together in the fellowship of God’s word through this ministry and the devotions the Lord places on my heart, we takes intentional steps to travel on the ways of the good and righteous. We come seeking discretion and the Lord delivers because He loves us, wants the best for us, and yearns to preserve us through His amazing divine wisdom.

I don’t know about you, but I’m eternally grateful for that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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