Proverbs 5:9 lest you give your honour to others and your years to the merciless
I had a part-time job years ago in a busy café on the main road near where I lived in a shared apartment. I would go in a do a few hours a four or five nights a week for some extra cash. The café also had a “fish and chips” counter at the front. One of my main roles was to make the chips. I would clamber down into the dim-lit basement through a trapdoor in the floor. Once down there I would pour half a sack of potatoes into a machine that looked like a wee cement mixer.
The inside of this machine was coated with very fine cut glass and water was plumbed in. When you turned it on it rotated and the potatoes were peeled and washed automatically. Then there was a big press with a square cut mould that forced the potatoes through and cut them as chips into a bucket. On most nights as soon as I had a big bucket full it was needed upstairs and I would start the process again. The business was always busy, the food was actually truly amazing, especially the curry.
I got to know the owner and became friendly with him, he had a four-story, high ceilinged townhouse in Old Edinburgh in a street around the corner from his business. I helped him sort out his garden which was wildly overgrown. As we became friends I discovered that he liked to go to the casino and that he believed that he heard voices that told him when to bet (with casino chips) large sums of money. He said the voices sometimes played jokes on him, telling him to bet at wrong times. Nothing I could say to him would cause him to either stop gambling or get some help.
There were two types of chips in his life, one was a blessing and one was eating away at his future.
I watched as over a period of years he lost his business and his house. We remained friends throughout this process, but he would never listen to any advice about gambling. He listened to me tell him about Christ but did not respond. I think that Proverbs so often puts the emphasis on “listen with the heart to obey”, as this is the great antidote or vaccine against needless loss.
KNOWLEDGE
There is a loss that will be suffered. Our decision not to listen to God in any given situation will result in consequences of pain.
We have the chance of blessing and increase and for our character to develop – all we have to do is simply listen and obey. How many parents can relate to this? You children would not listen – they chose their own path, and you feel the weight of the consequences for them?
Our sinful nature will have our hand over our peace and strength and future for a bowl of lentil stew. Our immediate need becomes our guiding principle.
A recent study by Harvard University and Gallup had this to say “The biggest single threat to our wellbeing – is ourselves – as without much thought we allow our short term decisions to override what is best for our long-term wellbeing”.
This research-based info has been and collated over a 50year + span from over 150 different countries.
It’s such an example of the culture leading us into the loss. How many people tonight can’t sleep because of the debts they have incurred living beyond their means, or with health issues exacerbated by long-time poor choices.
We trade in our crown for candyfloss.
Let’s consider our choices, pause, take a Selah moment before we leap into big decisions, and wait on God, through his Holy Spirit to lead us by his peace. As Colossians 3:15 puts it “and let the peace of Christ, rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”
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 “honour” in this scripture is pronounced as “hod” in Hebrew. This word appears 24 times in the Old Testament. In the ESV it is translated into English as, authority; splendour; majesty; glory; and, beauty.
Here in verse nine, we pick up on the idea of splendour and strength.
WISDOM – what or who rules your decisions each day?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Self-Assurance is vulnerable to admit wrongs, loves to laugh with those who laugh and mourn with those who mourn. Helps others see that inaction is a poor choice. And always wants to aim high.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [in case you hand over your strength and beauty to a different cause, and your whole life to a terrible end.]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me today to pledge my life afresh to you, your ways and your Kingdom. Thank you!
We have to make choices and disitions every day.
Are we sensitive to disern the voice of God?
Or hear the voice of the enemy?
Lies that will take us in a path of pain and destruction.
But as we learn to wait on the Lord,we know beyond doubt that we will come to a place of peace and blessing.
Today i pray that I will always chose to listen to his voice and make disitions for my future.
We have the chance of blessing and increase and for our character to develop – all we have to do is simply listen and obey.
Ver good! We have a choice. I always want to choose to listen and obey.
Great wisdom question also.
This is a sentiment that comes up so frequently in proverbs…. ensuring that as we navigate life and make big decisions that our hearts and minds would be focussed on Jesus and that we would be sure that the ‘peace of Christ rules in our hearts’. It is so easy to fall into the trap of making hurried decisions, not waiting on the Lord and thereby giving our honour (our strength, our splendour)… or giving the best of ourselves… to things other than the Kingdom. I pray that my life and my decisions would honour Jesus always.
I’ve always struggled and questioned if I’m making the right choices. I always pray and ask God to lead me and let His will be done in my life but how do we know God is directing us ?
Great Ps Allan
The biggest single threat to our wellbeing – is ourselves – as without much thought we allow our short term decisions to override what is best for our long-term wellbeing”. This is evident in every aspect of our lives. What we eat and our health, our finances and spending, our relationships, our discipline, and on and on. Great revelation. Amen for His word over us to protect us
Thank you Pastor Allan – you have many strings to your bow!!
Such a good reminder again to wait on the Holy Spirit who is the umpire of our heart choices. Making rash & hasty decisions without wise counsel can land us in a lot of unnecessary trouble & often with the wrong influencers. The saying ‘when in doubt or uncertain err on the side of caution’ which basically means do not go ahead. Making decisions for short term gratification without weighing up the long term consequences can be very foolish. This is often more of a challenge in our younger years but if bad choices are made hopefully we can learn from them to help us grow & mature in a greater measure of wisdom. However listening to God & being ready to obey is the very first & best decision we can make.
I would like to know how to behave on such situations. What did you do when your friend didn’t listen to you and you see him getting to debt?
I am in a similar place where I can see my brother is taking wrong decisions and other family members don’t listen to me and driving my brother into disaster.
They think it’s love and they think it’s the help but it’s not.
I am so confused and spending sleepless nights over this
Please advise
Thank you
Hi ps Allan ; thx u for God words; well make decisions in our life is constantly went I confronted I asking our amazing Father
Helping; guide me with wisdom
Thx u
God bless
To listen to God’s voice and to obey Him— is all we have to do. I pray that I will always make time to listen to Him and be guided by Him to make correct decisions in life. It is so easy to be tempted by the lure of wrong decisions and become trapped in a web of sin. It is definitely not worth jeopardising our physical health, mental well-being , our relationships and family for the sake of short term gain.
We have the chance of blessing and increase, all we need to do is simply listen and obey for our character to develop.
We have a decision to make at any given time to listen and obey God to avoid situations which can result to consequences of pain …
Thank you Ps Allan for sharing your story with us all about your friend. Love how you used this – There were two types of chips in his life, one was a blessing and one was eating away at his future.
Your strength thought is Gold!