Proverbs 1:31 “therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices”
I remember years ago being invited out for lunch by a businessman that I knew. He was retired and had been very successful financially. I was still young in the business, full of uncertainties, stressed by the complexities of leading people. I enjoyed meeting with this man and was really looking forwards to meeting up with him. He is a good Christian man. Sometimes though, he did not seem as happy as I thought you might be if you were retired at a fairly young age, with millions of dollars in the bank.
I won’t ever forget the picture God put in front of me that day. My friend was sitting at the back of the restaurant and as I walked down a narrow space between lines of tables, he sat to the left at the end, waiting. He looked successful. To the right at another table adjacent to him, sat an old minister with his dog collar showing, he looked peaceful. He had six or seven scraps of paper in front of him, with scribbles on them (which I imagined would be scriptures or thoughts) and he was moving them around and changing the order of them as he read them over.
I felt like God whispered a question that was blown into my soul at that moment, it was as if he asked “which is your chosen future?”.
Without hesitation, I answered to my inner self, the right, the right. I would rather be the minister with the scraps of paper than a successful businessman, I didn’t even really have to think about it. Nothing else happened that day, we had lunch, I went back to work. But I never forgot that moment, for me if felt like I had already chosen.
Now, as I write this, I have had many happy years working in business and loved the sense of bringing order out of the chaos that it usually provided. I have also been given the chance to move my own scraps of paper around. It’s good to love what we do, as we remember whose we are.
KNOWLEDGE
The counsel, wisdom, instruction and teaching from the King of Heaven has been made available and known. It’s available for the moment you are able to learn, in a format that will be understandable to you even as the youngest youth (Prov. 1:4). It is made available and understandable to the simple, the naïve and the wise. (Prov. 1:4-5).
However for some people there has been no buy-in, no uptake and no interest, rather they have persisted in the face of this teaching to work intentionally and whole-heartedly on their own understanding. Warnings have been part of the wisdom provided, glimpses of the future have been written down. In verse 31 we have our first “therefore”. We have moved from warnings now to a declaration of outcomes. The things that are longed for will be provided, and provided in abundance. What your heart desires it will receive. What a fearful thing for God to hand us over to our own lusts in any area of our life.
UNDERSTANDING: Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live? “Fill” is a word of great interest in this passage. The original word is pronounced “saba”, and has 97 mentions in the Old Testament. It is translated into English as full; satisfied; enough; abundance; plenty; gorge; and filled. In our verse, we can pick up the sense of an overfilling of appetites and desires.
WISDOM: What are the genuine desires of your heart today – write them down, be very honest, allow God to speak to you?
Strengths Thought – Ideation is a beautiful Strategic Thinking Strength – you can live in your head, in the “land of intentions”, but totally satisfied by all the ideas you have. You can often seem impractical and ungrounded. A good day for you you can be a day spent dreaming. However, you can spot solutions to what seems unsolvable to others. You generate ideas around topics that help others glimpse the unseen, the why. Complexity fascinates you, as you seek simplicity at its centre. Your thoughts expressed, can help resolve chaos into order.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version: [they will be consumed by their own conduct, and their schemes will satiate them.]
Prayer: Father, thank you for today. Please help me to be consumed by and committed to a love for you and your ways. Thank you.
Yes, the choices I made as a youg person without God, in hindsight were all wrong. I am grateful He continued to love me anyway. He finally got fed up and opened my eyes in recent years to see the folly of my ways. I had allowed people to dictate how I should live my life. Most of that time I tried to keep the peace doing things that I knew were not right. Being a born again Christian has given me the courage to break free from bondage. I no longer feel condemned and feel the need to please anyone but God. It’s such a good feeling to be who God intended me to be. I am so grateful but the regret the years in the wilderness without Him. Like you said Pastor Allan. I’ve made my bed and now I need to lay in it. But God is good. Thank you Jesus for redemption and standing in the gap for me.
My 2 yr old grandson is adorable, I absolutely love him but sometimes he just wants his own way and it’s never pretty! Sometimes he’s just overtired but he won’t allow us to put him down for a rest and the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that goes on! As the adults we know what he needs, what’s best for him, but sometimes he believes he knows better. Sound familiar!
You can’t lose for following the way of wisdom, for following His way.
This one is brilliant Ps Allan. Thank you for this.
Determined to write down again my desires and put them before God for direction.
Definitely have moments of not being sure what I thought were my real desires, but ideas birthed out of either frustration or confusion.
Success based on material things does not always fully satisfy, it might look good on the external but emptiness, loneliness, and lack of genuine friendships would leave one who has all the ‘things’ the world offers feeling unfulfilled.
Ready and willing to move my scrap papers around. Be available, teachable, learn, grow and make a difference in someone else’s life.
So good. Thank you
Consumed by and committed to a love for the Lord and his ways. What a beautiful prayer.
I had a similar life experience to the one you had in the cafe, Pastor Allan. The Lord spoke so clearly to the direction of my life and opened my eyes to the deep passion He had placed in my heart and I’ve been running in that direction and away from other ever since. I’m so grateful He allowed this at the right time in my life.
From here out I’ll be looking for those with the strength Ideation and asking the Lord for wisdom to see them bring their strength to the table, so that the team at large benefit.
Thank you Pastor Allan.
The desires of my heart in this season of my life has been to get to know God’s word more and to build my relationship further with my God .
To invest time with my family and build stronger relationships with our children .
To restore and rebuild my marriage.
I’m trusting God to lead me and counsel me in all the above areas ,
I need to seek Godly wisdom to carefully listen to God’s voice and shut the voice of the enemy .
It is very much the way of the world to live this way. Leaning on their own understanding. And quite often you see the devastation of their decisions and as dark and out of control their lives might be they just continue to do it their way. I have recently had an encounter with a dear friend that I’ve shared with about the lord for many years, but she continues to live away from him and her life is chaos , strife, broken, difficult. I left the time I spent with her hearing all her troubles and was reminded so beautifully by God that to live under His protection and to live according to HIS will meant I didn’t have to live with all that she does. I was so grateful to God for my life . She so admires my life my family and all that but is blind to the choices she must make to have a better life.
I do pray for her often to get a revelation of His goodness and That God wants the Best for her also . It’s difficult to watch on though
This is why we need wise counsel in the directions we take in life. Chasing success & riches are not the most important choice we can make but instead being mindful in what we are gifted in is paramount because for Christian people it’s not so much about choosing a career but rather what is the calling on our lives. Ultimately we are on the earth for God’s Kingdom & purposes & finding that right pathway will bring us the greatest satisfaction & fulfillment whether our calling is in business or ministry.
Great journey through Proverbs 1 Allan. Your last prayer today sums it up perfectly. To be consumed by and committed to a love for God and His ways.
Alan
I love reading about your experiences. I feel like I’m getting to know you better everyday.
Today’s scripture reminds me that the temptation is to always do things our own way. It takes discipline and a strong resolve so stop and open our selves up to the lord.
So incredibly how God knows everything you need and the dreams we have and He puts it all together for our good but do I want to follow Jesus or do I follow my own ambition after the warnings and hearing God’s voice but even better knowing Him in my heart all I wish to do is to earn my fathers love and make Him proud.
Love you Jesus!
My greatest desire is to guidance from God every decision you make in day to day. Unfortunately you don’t hear from or guidance from HolySpirit clearly as you would like to. We make decisions some time in life thinking that it’s good and you have blessings. Glad to read your story that you got clear understanding what you want to do and make peace with that in decision immediately! Thank you and Blessings ps Allen
My greatest desire is to receive guidance from God every decision I make in each day. Unfortunately you don’t hear guidance from HolySpirit clearly as you would like to. We make decisions some time in life thinking that it is good and you have blessings from God. Glad to read your story that you have got clear understanding what you want to do and make peace with that decision immediately! Thank you and Blessings ps Allen
Ps
Please discard previous comments!
the genuine desires of my heart today is to be well pleasing to God, to find confidence in knowing that where I am is where He wanted me to be, and that I am in His ministry.
I would like it that one day. when that great door opens, King Jesus will welcome me with “c’mon in, well done, good and faithful servant.”
Thank you, Ps Allan for guiding me to think through God’s words in Proverbs and meditate on them. God speaks. 🙂
God bless
I’m so grateful for the way the Holy Spirit leads us into the right choice as we listen to His voice and follow Him. Thanks
Father God, let my heart break for those that break yours and be joyful for things that make you joyful. I want to yield my will and intentions to yours.
Oh, to be true to the good work God has put upon our hearts to do…