Proverbs 6:20–23 (NIV)
My son, keep your father’s command
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
Bind them always on your heart;
fasten them around your neck.
When you walk, they will guide you;
when you sleep, they will watch over you;
when you awake, they will speak to you.
For this command is a lamp,
this teaching is a light,
and correction and instruction
are the way to life,
This text reminds me of Deuteronomy 6:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (vv. 4–9)
A life of wisdom comes from remembering, and remembering comes from repetition. There are at least a couple of ways to build remembering into life. Some people build private spiritual compartments into their days dedicated to such purposes, or a better path is to find ways to weave remembrance throughout the normal course of everyday lives in public. Scripture seems to instruct people more often in the latter approach.
Many think of the devotional life as a private, personal, and primarily spiritual experience; a time of directing my thoughts and emotions toward God. And this is true. We need that alone time with God, but that is not to be the only way we connect with God.
Faith is profoundly personal, but it is not to be privatised. The formation of faith requires relationships and community. The people of Israel were instructed not to wear their religion on their sleeves, but to practice their faith in relationships in the context of their everyday, ordinary lives.
Both Deuteronomy 6 and Proverbs 6 instruct us to remember the wise instruction of our parents (or grandparents, or extended family members). The key to biblical remembrance is not to run through something in your mind but to get it off the pages, out of your head, and into your everyday, walking-around life. For instance, wear it around your neck so that it will remind you when you walk, when you sleep, and when you awake. That's pretty much all the time. It's not about a quiet time, but an "all the time."
(a) sit at home,
(b) walk along the road,
(c) when we lie down, and
(d) when we get up.
Again, it’s not just about a quiet time, but an "all the time" kind of practice.
There's more. Our hands are always before us, so tie these words as symbols on our hands (or write it) and bind it on our foreheads so we will become reminders of this wisdom as we are with others. We are instructed to "write them on our gates and our doorframe," so in case we missed it when we came through the gate, we will see it on the doorframe of our house, and others who come will see it and be reminded also.
Wisdom fashions an everyday world shaped by the Word of God. Wisdom comes to us through words, and words shape worlds. God created the world with wise and powerful words, and he wills to fashion our lives by those same words. These words cannot be left on the pages of our Bibles. We must find practical, everyday ways of keeping the wisdom of the Scriptures ever before us.
Above all, we want to remember what the wisdom of God is all for and all about: Loving the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength. And loving each other and everybody else with that same kind of love. If we get everything else and miss that, we missed everything. If we get this and miss out on everything else, we got it all.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you are the wisdom of heaven on earth - pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. You are my wisdom, and I am your witness. I want to know you better today. Praying in your name, amen.
PROMPTS
- How are you taking words from the Word of God (i.e., the Bible) and posting them in your everyday world?
- How is the Word of God being woven into your days and hours?
- How might you grow in this way?
What is one practical step you might take today to enact this?
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