SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/20/2013
11:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Faith
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Studies in Proverbs
Message of
the verses: We begin looking at the eleventh chapter in
Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the book of Proverbs in which he entitles it “Enjoying
God’s Guidance.” Dr. Wiersbe speaks
about the will of God in this chapter, something that all of us need to know
more about in our everyday life. He
concludes his introduction with this paragraph:
“No matter how we may feel personally about the topic (the will of God),
if we’re going to be skillful in life, we have to understand what God’s will is
and how it works in our everyday experiences.
In the book of Proverbs, Solomon shares with us the essentials for
knowing, doing, and enjoying the will of God.”
1. Faith
I
suppose that one of the best know verses in Proverbs comes from chapter three
and verses five and six, “5 Trust in the
LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will
make your paths straight.” We looked at
these verses earlier in our study of the book of Proverbs and noted that we
have to follow carefully these verses as there were conditions to meet. First we must stay in the word of God, and
next we must obey God’s will after we have learned what it is through His Word.
That
we belong to God: An unbeliever could never rest on the words
of Proverbs 3:5-6, that would be impossible for an unbeliever does not
personally know the Lord. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “While a sovereign God can rule and overrule in the life of any person,
saved or lost,1 it is clear that the life of the unsaved person is motivated
and energized by the world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph. 2:1-3).” End note from this section “God never
violates any person’s freedom, accomplished even through the lives of people
who don’t know Him or won’t acknowledge Him.
This was true of Cyrus (2Chron. 36:22; Isa. 44:28-45:1), Nebuchadnezzar
(Jer. 25:9; 27:6), and Pharaoh (Ex. 9:16; Rom. 9:14-18).”
It
is only true of believers that they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and
that they thus are able to understand the Word of God, and have the desire to
obey it.
That
God has a plan for our lives: Proverbs 19:21 states “Many are the plans in
a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. (NIV) I know that there are times in my life and I
suppose times in other believer’s lives that they feel that God has given up on
them, has abandoned them, but the truth is that since God sent His One and Only
Son into the world to die in our place how inconceivable it would be that He
would give up on us. 1Co 6:3 “Do you not
know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?” “19 Or
do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body (1Cor. 6:19-20).”
We look at Ephesians 2:10 on many occasions in these Spiritual Diaries,
and it states that God has prepared before the world even existed good works
for us to accomplish in the power of the Holy Spirit. It gives God good pleasure to work in our
lives and that is an awesome thought: “13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me
in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give
thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your
works, And my soul knows it very well. 15
My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And
skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as
yet there was not one of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O
God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If
I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still
with You (Ps. 139:13-18).
That
the Father will reveal His will in His time: How do we receive God’s promises? “So that you will not be sluggish, but
imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises,” and “and so, having
patiently waited, he obtained the promise.”
(Hebrew 6:12, 15) We need to
realize that it is just a dangerous for us to go ahead of God’s will for our
lives and for us to lag behind. “It is
not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way (Pr.
19:2 NIV).” In the Psalm that I am
putting to memory, Psalm 32, we see in verse nine these words, “Do not be as
the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include
bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.” The horse will run ahead and the mule will
not budge so we are to be like neither of these two animals. In the book of Acts, and chapter sixteen,
verses six through ten we find that even the apostle Paul did not always know
how God was guiding him, and so he had to pause to find out: “6 ¶
They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden
by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; 7
and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and
the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8
and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man
of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to
Macedonia and help us." 10 When he
had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called
us to preach the gospel to them.” (Us means Luke along with Paul.)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the
things that I have to fight in my life is I always seem to be in a hurry, and
this is something that has been a great problem for me, but it does seem as I
grow older and get older in the Lord that I do have more patience in waiting
for the Lord to guide me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: One of the things that I have learned from
being in a hurry and not have it work out for me is to try to learn
contentment, something I have mentioned many times in my Spiritual Diary.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 32:1-7
1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered! 2 How blessed is
the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no deceit! 3 When I kept silent about my
sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon
me; my vitality was drained away like the fever heat of summer. Selah. 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my
iniquity I did not hide; I said “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”;
and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You
may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
Answer to yesterday’s
Question: “He made an idol god.” (Exodus 32:2-4)
Today’s Question: “What did Simon the sorcerer want to buy with
money?”
Answer in Tomorrows SD
3/20/2013 12:59 PM
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