October 1 – The wise man + the simpleton

A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life.  (Proverbs 22:3,4  NLT)

Like the song from Casting Crowns says, “It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away.”  Many times sin appears as something insignificant and small, and we can easily pass it off as something of no consequence.  But we have to remember that whether sins are large or small, Satan is behind each one and he is scheming to bring us down.  We are like trophies to him.  Every believer that he can weaken and destroy is a great triumph for him, something that hurts the Father.  It’s his way of stealing from God.

Life is all about the choices we make; either we choose to be prudent or we choose to be simpletons.  Either we have the foresight to take precautions with regard to sin, temptation and danger, or we blindly stumble forward and suffer the consequences.  So many people get angry at God and ask “why” when they fall, but it was they who ignored all the danger signals and simply did what felt good at the time.  One of the choices we are confronted with numerous times every day of our lives is that of living by emotions or living by reason and intelligence.  In a culture that promotes feelings, it is a real challenge to put our emotions to the side and make the right choice, the reasonable, godly choice.

Most people are searching for riches, honor and long life.  No one wants to be poor, to be continually put down, or to have his or her life cut short.  But the path to these blessings is true humility and the fear of the Lord.  This involves running away from sin because we are scared of doing anything that might jeopardize our connection with God.  We can’t afford to be naïve and simpleminded, but we can’t be paranoid and fearful either.  The answer is for us to fear God and anything that might cause us to start drifting away from Him, and fear nothing else.  If we are humble and fear the Lord, we are guaranteed of a good life.