Proverbs 5:21–23 (NIV)
For your ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all your paths.
The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
the cords of their sins hold them fast.
For lack of discipline they will die,
led astray by their own great folly.
Take note of
these sixteen words:
For your ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all your paths.
This is not a “gotcha”
text.
The God and
Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, is not a gotcha God.
- What if we read this text not as an ominous warning or as bad news, but as good news?
Someone
watching over us can help us, and encourage us, and pick us up when we fall,
and carry us when we can't go any further, and be there for us.
God doesn't
watch over us in order to smite us, but so he can support us.
Yes, he watches
over us so he can instruct us, and warn us, and correct us, and guide us in
right paths, and train us in right ways, and discipline us to make us better,
and all the other things someone who really loves and cares for a person does.
This particular
verse is in the midst of major warnings about adultery.
- Is this the case because God wants to punish people who commit adultery?
No. It's there
because God wants us to understand that, next to murder, adultery is the most
dangerous, destructive, and devastating thing a person can do.
This is a
"Danger!" moment.
To be wise is
to recognise the close presence of the Lord and to live life in a way that honours
him.
For your ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all your paths.
To grow wise
means to increasingly live life in the awareness and attentiveness to this
fact:
“Our ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all of our paths."
Thank God.
PRAYER
Father, awaken me to the gracious awareness that all of my ways are in your full view. Lord Jesus, train me in the ways of your wisdom - to grasp that long before sin shows up in my actions, it seizes my heart. Holy Spirit, would you guard my heart and keep me in your overseeing care. Praying in Jesus' name, amen.
PROMPTS
- What is your level of awareness that all of your ways are in full view of God? Does this make you more peaceful or more anxious?
Comments