Proverbs 6:12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,
As I sit here thinking back through my life, asking myself when have I come across men like this. There have been moments I think, although possibly never any long term friendships.
Of course, there are the men who abused me as a young boy. Shocking, intentional and selfish behaviour. They are forgiven by me. There is the friend that I shared my life with who stole my motorbike, broke it up into parts and sold them for cash for himself, all the while telling me how angry he was at the person who stole my bike. He is forgiven by me.
And so many other people with small parts to play in my life, they meant me harm, sometimes they did me harm, sometimes not.
But then I think of the seventy-year-old lady who picked me up from the side of the road at two in the morning after a bad motorcycle crash. The person who gave me their keys to their state of the art mountain cabin in Tennessee so I could rest for two weeks. The families that invited me into their homes and hearts, around the dinner table and even on vacations. The landlord invited me to Sunday diner with three generations and made me adopted into their family when I was like an orphan. The friends that let me sleep on their floor for three months when I was homeless. The policeman’s wife made me sandwiches at three in the morning in a windswept Yorkshire moor. The families in Honduras that gave up their beds for a night, and fed me, even when they went without. And so many more stories of warm, generous, people, who gave because they could.
As I reflect on this it helps me remember who I want to be and why.
Who do you want to be?
KNOWLEDGE
Have you ever met a person that you just don’t or can’t trust? There is an edge about them as they go around, borrowing money they never intended to pay back, talking about elaborate schemes to get rich. They drop names of people they have never met, and spin stories of events that never happened. They live in a vortex of schemes and scheming.
The bible is about to tell us about this person. The word used for “worthless” is translated as “son of Belial”. In 2 Corinthians 6:15, the writer says this “What accord [unison, agreement] has Christ with Belial? Or what portion [share] does a believer have with an unbeliever?
This person then being described by the writer of Proverbs, is someone who is not interested in the things of God, but is interested in your undoing, your calamity, and your disaster.
It is so important then that we are careful in who we allow into our lives, that we seek the gift of discernment, that we work to have the greatest insights, and that we pray for the clearest guidance.
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?
The word for “crooked” in Hebrew is pronounced as ” ‘iqq’sut” and appears twice in the Old Testament, both times in Proverbs [Pro 4:24; and 6:12]. In this verse, the word carries the meaning of corruption and perversion.
WISDOM – what comes from my heart to my lips today?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Communication, is ethical and effective, and summarises successes.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [a scoundrel and troublemaker of calamity, one of a kind, goes around with a deformed and twisted testimony.]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to consider my testimony, linked to my actions and words, and to live for you Jesus every moment. Thank you.
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