Proverbs 4:13 “Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life”
Sometimes in life, we meet people who just know what they are called to do and are in the middle of doing it. Back in the early ’90s, I had the opportunity to travel to Florida at short notice. It was kind of a vacation stroke development trip. I stayed with friends and enjoyed the sights and entertainments of all the theme parks and beaches etc.
For around three of four days I went to stay with an older couple in Wauchula, Fla. The population was probably around four thousand people, and there was a small church where some friends of mine from Scotland had studied ministry for a couple of years.
The couple I stayed with were remarkable in their ordinariness. They were in their sixties, both working full time, and had both worked full time most of their married life. They worked in fairly low paid jobs in service industries.
Then the remarkable bit……onto the back of the modest house they had built an extension and had designed this large extension to be a halfway house for men from the local prison. They had up to six men staying at any time. This was what they worked for, they self-funded this ministry and had done so for years. They had seen over a hundred men get a start in life after leaving prison. They housed them and fed them and helped them find work locally.
I stayed in the halfway house with the group of men who were there at that time. It was such an amazing few days, hearing the stories from these men, who were finding ways of rebuilding trust with partners and children, of starting to create life again. One very young man was working the system and was so sure of himself, but all the others came across as genuinely grateful for this opportunity and they were doing all they could to make the most of it. They got up around five am to get ready to go to their various workplaces, landscaping, building, and farm work mostly if I remember well.
On my last day, which was a Sunday, we went to the local church where after the morning service the congregation were having a picnic, which they invited me to join. Afterwards, back at the house, I was sitting in the main living area when the couple came in with a basin and towel, knelt down and washed my feet, and prayed over me.
I do not mind admitting that I cried and cried and cried. There was thunder in my heart as God was rearranging the furniture there.
KNOWLEDGE
It’s with us. To grab a hold! To get a grip! To put everything in! Sometimes in sports coaches will say things like “don’t leave anything on the pitch”. What they mean I think is that we should give our all, don’t get to the dressing room feeling like we could have given more. I sense that sort of coaching from Solomon in this scripture. He has seen the outcomes for others and for himself of lukewarm performance, he recognises the dangers of distractions, the concerns of compromise, and the landing place of laziness.
Like a great coach he is encouraging us to get committed, put everything we have on the table, don’t leave space for regret, or disappointment.
As we give our very best, we will by that very reason be confronted at times by our shortcomings and our areas for growth. We can see the hand of a besotted father in this – he wants the best for us, he wants to lead our character time and time again to the divine exchange, to the secret place where it is just us and Him, where we can pour out our hearts and our hurts and receive healing and wholeness.
As we bring everything we have, God establishes abundant life in us. What would hold us back – delay us, hamper or hinder us – as we make time to meditate on Jesus and what he has given for us, we start to release our clenched fists, to be willing to lay down our lives for others in response to His laying down his life for us.
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?
“let go” in Hebrew is pronounced “rapah” and appears 46 times in the Old Testament. [The word “go” appears 1505 times]. “Rapah” is translated in the ESV into words such as, idle; leave; put off; relax; alone; respite; stop; fail; stay your [hand]; weak; discouraged; drop; loosens; refrain; forsake; slack; faint; feeble; helpless; and, let down. Yikes, this is possibly the most different use for one word [pro-rata] that I have seen yet. But, even although there are so many different English words used, we see such a strong connection, almost like a thesaurus description for “laziness”.
WISDOM: what do you give your heart to each day?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Adaptability is so well-positioned to respond to immediate needs. When in the flow of change, don’t lose sight of the important goals in life.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [strengthen your character with {God’s} discipline and teaching, don’t be lazy and hang limp! Fortify and preserve the secret places so that you bring life to your soul.]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me today to see areas in my life where I am limp, or lazy, and to bring your word to bear on these aspects of my life. To ask your Holy Spirit to bring me to a place of repentance and change. Thank you.
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A timely message for me today. Knowing and yet not following through is akin to laziness. Life is God’s gift and we need to use that gift to give back to God by helping others as your friends were doing to help the less fortunate in life. Thanks for today’s message Pastor Allan.
“Keep hold, do not let go, guard her” are very strong instructions. They have a sense of urgency, alerting us to the fact that it is our responsibility to understand the value of Gods instructions and leading in our life. This is our place of strength…in Gods presence experiencing that Devine exchange of our weakness for His strength. You have so beautifully unpacked this thought.
Your experience of having your feet washed by that beautiful couple, humbly living out their calling, was very moving to read.
We need to live our lives intentionally. If we follow Gods instructions for our lives we end up living the abundant life Jesus speaks of. So in light of that I ask myself – what are Gods instructions for me today?
What a beautiful story and an incredible couple. Love hearing how so many men’s lives were changed. So good!
Love your wisdom question – WISDOM: what do you give your heart to each day?
Such an important question, as everything flows from our heart.
Get committed, put everything you have on the table, don’t leave space for regret, or disappointment. – Really like this.
Great encouragement!
Brilliant read Allan you have truly lived a full life
Be strong.
Stand firm.
Serve the Lord wholeheartedly.
So easy to say and so hard to put to practice. Tks Bro
This week and the past few weeks I have pressed in and leant on Christ’s strength to get me through a challenging work week. I notice that when I do this consistently it makes a huge difference. Why is it so easy to get distracted by life and not make time to press in when I most need to?
Wow what a beautiful humble & inspirational couple Pastor Allan! Thank you for sharing!
A further strong exhortation to continue to put Father God first & foremost in my life. to allow Him to lead & deal with me in all my human failings. Solomon speaks out of his experience & has learnt the hard lessons of neglecting God’s instructions so he is warning me of becoming lethargic & lazy in seeking & searching for wisdom. Words such as keep hold don’t let go & guard for she is the essence of my life show me that it is critical to my welfare & wellbeing to heed his warning. Since I have such a loving kind & caring Father Who wants the very best for me it is wisdom to closely follow His Words of wisdom if I desire to flourish & serve Him in the best possible way.
Strengthen your character with {God’s} discipline and teaching, don’t be lazy and hang limp! Love your thought.
we start to release our clenched fists, to be willing to lay down our lives for others in response to His laying down his life for us.
Really love that, it’s so true.
If I look at myself as a volunteer at church. It is easy to ask yourself why we do this. A great way to see this is as what you have said. We are laying our lives for him like he did for us.
Thank you Ps Allan for sharing.
Hi ps Allan thx u for God word; well is so interesting again ready part of u story life;
God is amazing how put us in different places in our life ; protect us and support.
Thx u
God bless have good weekends
Put everything you have on the table. Don’t leave space for regret or missed opportunities. We are taught to do our very best, and where we fall short, He will teach and encourage us. It is so comforting to know that our Father is there at all times, ready to listen and give us solace and healing. And in the process we learn to be stronger and more effective through our daily walk with Him.
Pastor Alan, it’s unbelievable the life you have lived, where Jesus has taken around world meeting people and serving soooo many different communities and watching different walks of life come into and touch your own life, these are soooo many good memories that are etched in your mind that really touching our lives here and may go from strength to strength and glory to glory pastor Alan, and keeps these wonderful stories coming please🙏🏿👍🏾
Today’s strength thought is beautiful.
But we need to be intentional so that we do not compromise the important things in life.