Proverbs 5:18 let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth
We got married on a boat, out at sea. What picture does that bring up in your mind? What sort of boat do you see, what does the view look like?
A friend of ours has a business with a boat that does short cruises out to see the views and the seals on Loch Linnhe in Scotland. It’s a beautiful old wooden boat that has been lovingly restored.
We had more than seventy friends on the deck around us for the wedding ceremony. We had to mark on the wedding certificate the GPS coordinates to ensure we were in the right parish when we gave our vows.
The sun shone, music was played, friends smiling and laughing, praise and worship was offered out on the loch.
Wendy walked down the short aisle to stand with me. Wendy was beautiful in her wedding outfit. I stood in my Scottish formal kilt attire, with my dad’s tartan from his military service.
Our families were there. Our dearest friends in the world were there. Friends had been up early in the morning and decorated the boat. It was like a movie set, the perfect wedding picture. Surrounded by green mountains, the sun glistening on the water, everything slowed down and stilled for a moment, while we exchanged our vows for life, and our own made gold wedding rings.
I am a blessed man, I have a faithful, loving, beautiful, Godly wife who stands with me through the good, the indifferent, and the hard seasons. I have reason to rejoice.
KNOWLEDGE
What’s our source? Source of joy, hope, provision, peace, health, strength, or wisdom [to name a few]. Where do we find our fullness of life? Where do our decisions become formed and tested? What or whom do we worship. Let’s make our case, review our day, consider our actions, how we use our time and our strength?
If we were in court before a jury and they analysed our life, what evidence could we present? Do we share all we have with the poor, do we daily break bread with other believers, do we purposely join together each week in worship in community, do we read the bible each day and put into action immediately what we read there, do we have the attitude of a willing servant before God and does our heart burn with passion for the lost?
As the bible has it in Matthew 5:1-12 where each beatitude also starts with the word [Greek – Makarios] “Blessed are” – those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who are hungry and thirsty for the right, who are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers and persecuted.
Is that my picture of being blessed today? When I pray to be blessed am I thinking of the beatitudes?
And now from this position of blessing, we choose to honour our commitments before God and our family.
We choose to go through the good and the hard with the same outlook, the same gratitude, focused on the blessings of God. We have an integrally grateful heart, in every [every] circumstance we recognise God at work, and we genuinely and fully give all our thanks and praise to Him, full of joy for the adventure He has us in. Now we are blessed.
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 “blessed” in Hebrew is pronounced as “barak” and appears 326 times in the Old Testament. In the ESV it is translated into English words such as, bless; greet; congratulate; curse; and, kneel.
Here in verse 17, carries the idea of kneeling in adoration, to be hallowed.
WISDOM – can you write out your blessings today and review them every week?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Relator is trustworthy and loves depth. You make space and create opportunities, building others up as you care for yourself.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [where your source of abundance comes from, kneel and give your adoration, be glad and delight in your wife from your young days.]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to simply love my wife well, and also to love you.
I so love feedback – please do scroll down and use a few moments to bless me?