Prov 8:34 [ESV] Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.
I am so glad I said yes. It changed my life for the better in so many ways, it’s a yes that I will never regret.
Standing outside the small hall where a one man play on the life of C T Studd had been performed, I was amazing at the durability, passion, and sheer persistence of this man who lived and died before I was born.
In chatting to the lone actor he told me he was a full time missionary to Honduras. I said that sounded exciting and challenging – he invited me to come and see for myself, and I said “yes”. That was the beginning of over twenty years of adventures and now memories that I would never trade in. If you want to read more about these, you will find some accounts in my memoirs “It Just So Happened….”
KNOWLEDGE – It’s a heart attitude that this scripture is dipping into. Our hearts are to be always ready to listen and to obey our Lord, and there is a sense almost like anticipation in the waiting. We are waiting on our tippy-toes, ready to move at a moment’s notice, no need to rouse us from our slumber – we are alert available, and applied.
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 used for “watching” here is pronounced in Hebrew as “saqad”, and carries the meaning of being awake, standing guard, watching, and being ready.
The LXX uses “αγρυπνών” [agrupnon] – “being awake”. This word appears four times in the New Testament, in the context of “watch and pray, and being alert at all times”.
WISDOM
Waiting is a heart attitude not a physical condition.
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Restorative as a Gallup Strength looks past the surface towards the root cause, bringing lasting answers, restoring order, and tidying up the mess. Be careful not to become so focused on the problems that you lose sight of the people.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – Blessed, happy and fortunate is the person who hears and obeys me, wide awake, standing guard all day at my door, keeping watch at my city gates.
Blessed is the one – blessed, happy and fortunate is the person
who listens to me – who hears and obeys me
watching – wide awake, standing guard
daily – all day
at my gates – at my door
waiting – keeping watch
beside my doors – at my city gates
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to enjoy the opportunity to wait on you with a heart to hear and obey each day.
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