Prov 27:6
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. ESV
- A friend is not just there to make you feel good about yourself. A friend is to help you; sometimes that means challenging you or making you aware of an area where your character needs addressed. Lord, help me to surround myself with people that care enough to help me and for me to have a soft receptive heart when they do. Help me to be that kind of friend. Lord, show me when to speak and when to hold my tongue and how to speak in away that they can receive.
- VS 12; Josh 24:21-22;
John 9:34
34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. ESV
- Prov 16:18 Pride makes a fool. He who can’t or will not learn, is a fool. I was once told that a wise man knows a fool isn’t always wrong. The one who is above listening, never learns. God, help me to remember I don’t know everything and to be open to listen, no matter who is speaking.Prov 1:5;
Prov 9:8-9
Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. 9 Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. NIV
- Part of the price of wisdom may be letting go of pride the wise receive correction. That means they admit that they were wrong, they don’t know everything and that they can learn from who ever is correcting them whether it is some one highly respected or not.
- Prov 9:6; Prov 4:7; Prov 12:13; 22:6
Prov 10:19
19 When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.
NIV
- Prov 10:8, 10, 18:2; 18:21; Ecc 5:3
- Do you know when to hold your tongue?
Prov 3:7-8
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. NIV
It can be so easy to see myself as wise. God help me to learn from others that are wiser than me and to always be obedient to you.
Fearing the Lord is something that I have had to learn how to do properly. We are not supposed be afraid of God but we are supposed to view Him as holy and treat Him with respect.
Shunning evil seemed to be a pretty simple command yet figuring out what that looks like became complex. If I am to shun evil, then I should run from temptation, be careful of what I am thinking about, and stay away from people who are happily living in sin but calling themselves Christians.
Prov 9:8-9
Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. 9 Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.
This scripture says that if we want to be wise we have to learn to accept correction and rebuke. That can be a hard thing to endure. God please help me to be wise and to learn from others.
Thoughts from AVK
Prov 14:16 A wise man fears the lord and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless.
This scrip tells us to actually SHUN evil…what does shun mean???
The dictionary definition of shun: to avoid somebody or something intentionally. That does not mean to avoid everyone who does something wrong because we are all sinners(Rom 3:23). But if someone is saying they serve God but is refusing to live it we are told to AVOID them.
Col 1:9-12
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. NKJV
- 1 Thess 5:17; Great bible prayers Phil 1:9-11; Eph 1:16-19; Eph 3:16-19
- I just noticed something. In all of these prayers there is something in common. Paul always prays that they would know, or increase in Knowledge or understanding. His prayer isn’t that they would have but that they would know. I believe there is more available to us than we know, and if we don’t know we don’t act, and we won’t use what we have. We need to be asking God to show us what he has done, and what he has given us. Eph 1:3 says that he has already given us every spiritual blessing. Lord help me to know who I am in you, and help me to walk in all that you have purchased for me.
Prov 15:12
12 Mockers don’t love those who rebuke them, so they stay away from the wise.
NLT
- Prov 22:6; Prov 1:5
- Sometimes the things that we need to hear hurt. Do you avoid the people who will tell you what you need to hear instead of what you want to hear? Do you seek those that will speak into your life even when it means correcting you, or do you avoid them, do you look for people that will just say nice things about you?
- Vs31 there are always those ready to speak into us life changing instruction but we have to open up and choose to hear.
Prov 9:6
6 Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” ESV
- Wisdom has a price. Here it says leave. There are things that you will have to give up; they may be things you have known all your life. But part of the price of wisdom is leaving or letting things go. Are you willing to leave things?
- Prov 4:7; 28:13;
