Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father help us to more clearly see the habits and patterns of our everyday life. Father, am I wise? Have I listened to the voices in my life that are speaking your wisdom? Have I listened not just with my ears, but with my living? Help me Father, to seek wisdom, and to deny the foolishness of listening to my own appetites, for food, entertainment, and sleep. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for faithfully revealing so much of your wisdom to us. We have no excuse not to be wise. You have shown us and helped to us to obey! We have no excuse for foolishness. Father, in the powerful name of Jesus, and by the Spirit, help us to listen to wisdom and deny ourselves. May we be ever more like Jesus. Amen!
Your Morning Song: "Calling Out Your Name" by Rich Mullins
Your Morning Scripture: Proverbs 23:19-21
Listen, my son, and be wise,
and set your heart on the right path:
Do not join those who drink too much wine
or gorge themselves on meat,
for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
...
The author of this proverb calls out to his son to listen to him, his father, and to be wise. This call to wisdom stands in opposition to all that follows after "Do not..."
On one is wisdom, and the other is foolishness. But there is a flavor to the two distinctions that is worth pointing out. The wisdom here is gained by conscious, on-purpose effort. The foolishness, drunkenness, gluttony, laziness, is all quite possible without conscious effort. Wisdom cannot be gained on accident, only on purpose. Whereas foolishness merely requires the hand to bring food or drink to the mouth, without any real need for contemplation of any kind.
Are we living wisely on purpose? Or are we living foolishly, according to our unconscious appetites?
The way God has designed the world to work is that the wisdom of self-denial and hard work is one that brings flourishing. And the foolishness of our appetites unchecked will always lead to varying forms of destruction and suffering.
As God's children, made so by Jesus, we are called to be wise. It begins in obedience, choosing wisdom over foolishness because God said so is a good enough reason to stop there. But to allow foolishness, patterns of sin and self-worship, to grow in our daily living, also matters. Because the horrible truth remains, if we live wise, some may turn to God and praise Him because our faithfulness. But if we live foolishly, then God Himself will look false, fake, and foolish. May it never be. But it so often is.
May our lives be filled with the conscious, obedient, joy-full pursuit of God's abundant wisdom. May we deny our appetites as our masters and put them in their rightful place. May we not be fools.
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