Proverbs 1: 7 (GWT)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Stubborn fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs 3: 5-7
Trust the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths smooth.
Do not consider yourself wise.
Fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
Whenever we consider ourselves to be wise, we are relying on our own understanding of the situation at hand, and seeing only what appears. This is usually deceptive, because we don't know the whole story.
God is our Maker. He knows us and our situations inside-out. He is the only One Who sees the whole picture, and can lead us into the right ways. So we are to invite Him to join us in our journey, and listen to His directions. Then we will avoid all the pitfalls and potholes and stumbling stones, and walk that smooth path in life.
If we are stubborn, not wanting to listen or be open to learning something new, then we will miss the right way to go about whatever situation is facing us, and end up worse.
When Proverbs talks about foolishness, or a fool, it is referring to someone who refuses to listen to God, and goes the wrong way, doing the thing that seems expedient at the moment, but ends up to be damaging. This is evil. It goes against good.
God is good, and He wants us to do good, so He has provided for us everything we need in His Word and in this Earth.
People who twist His Word, or mess with what He has provided naturally, then they're going against His good that He wants for us, and are playing into the hand of our enemy who wants to destroy us.
When we listen to God, take to heart what He has said, and use this Earth as He intended, then we will experience the good He has planned for us--
V. 8
Then you body will be healed, and your bones will have nourishment.
Then we won't get sick, whatever malady we're suffering will be healed, and our bones, the foundation of our bodies, will get the nourishment, the raw materials it needs to build strong, healthy organs to sustain our physical life.
This book of Proverbs is our roadmap to how to live and relate to one another here in this life on this Earth. It's mostly horozontal in its view, in how to get along down here.
So it doesn't proclaim the Gospel that saves our souls, that has a vertical view (I Corinthians 15:3-4).
But Proverbs still looks upward to God for the wisdom and knowledge of how to use this roadmap.
It is foolish to deny God's Person and His workings. It's evil. And its end is no good.
The beginning of wisdom is having that reverential awe of God in recognizing His Power and Authority and Sovereignty over all He has made, all of us.
O my Father, You are awesome! You are so good to us all! You have laid out the roadmap for us, and given Your Spirit to guide us, and done everything possible and impossible to show us how much You love us, and want us to love You back. You designed this Earth for us, then made us of it, and provided everything we need to live here, right here.
Please help us to understand the way You have laid out for each of us, to follow You and Your ways, just as Jesus' disciples followed Him and listened to His teachings as He walked the Promised Land.
Lead us, Father, by Your Spirit, to always do what our hands find to do, go where our feet (and cars and planes and trains) take us, to speak to the people whose path crosses ours, and propagate and promote Your Good News to all who are willing to hear.
So that the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the World to every Nation, every people, every language, every tribe, every family; until every creature has heard, and our King will appear to set up His Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
