Ask Us Why

Proverbs 11:24 says "One gives freely and grows all the richer, another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want." How true is it that when we hold back from giving, we always find ourselves in a place of discontentment and always wanting more? Do you consider yourself a generous person? What does it mean to be generous? Our takeaway has immediate application and aims to help us be more generous today than we were yesterday. 

Proverbs 10:7 says "The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot." Give it some thought but what legacy are you trying to leave? What impact do you want to leave here on Earth? Do you want to be known as someone who only lived for themselves? Someone who lived a quiet comfortable life, and kept to themselves? Or do you want to be known for something more? Someone who chose wisdom. Someone who chose the path of life and left others with a memory that will bless them and generations to come? The blessing is we get to decide.

Chapter 9 compares and contrasts the ways of wisdom and the ways of folly. A key verse from it, Proverbs 9: Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you reprove a wise man, and he will love you." The takeaway for us isn't necessarily to reprove wise people, but to ask ourselves if we are someone who is wise and can take reproof? If someone calls us out for our sin or something we are doing, are we quick to get defensive or shut people out? Or do we respect them, listen to their words, take them to heart, and potentially to action? Ultimately, do we consider ourselves approachable?

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil (Proverbs 8:13). The closer we get to God, the more we know His heart, and the greater our fear of Him (healthy fear). If we are truly abiding in God, then we should hate evil right? Except, it doesn't always seem that way does it?... Maybe we don't love it, but we are indifferent towards it, annoyed maybe, but hate it? That's a stretch. We must learn to hate evil and sin if we ever want to see victory from it in our own lives. 

No one magically wakes up one day and finds themselves cheating on their spouse or significant other. For every "major" sin, there are a thousand sins in private. Solomon warns us not to even wander down the path that leads to adultery and that we should avoid it altogether. Our takeaway today is, what have we already become numb to (regarding sin) that is leading us down the path to death?

Proverbs 6 packs a punch but in this episode we primarily focus on the topic of the sluggard and what it means to work unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23). I also address a new phenomenon called "Quiet Quitting" and how harmful such a practice can have on the body of believers and our witness to the world. 

Solomon can't get enough about the importance of protecting ourselves from sexual immorality and the adultery we are tempted by so easily. Even though Solomon makes a strong argument for staying committed to one woman, he, of course, doesn't follow through on his word and ends up marrying 1000 women. What that tells us, is that if we can't be content with one spouse, we won't be content with 1000. And ultimately, the fight in this battle starts all the way in singleness, not for the married person. 

In this chapter, we focus primarily on the second half which addresses the idea of the path we walk and avoiding the things that cause us to stumble along the way. There's a really cool analogy of a horse that illustrates the struggles we have with distractions in our lives and what it takes to remove them to help us run the race well. Hebrews 12:1

Solomon wastes no time in bringing wisdom starting in chapter 3 and no joke, I had a really hard time deciding what to talk about because all of it was so good. I landed on a few takeaways and the last one will blow your mind with learning just how rich Solomon was and just how important it is to seek wisdom over wealth.

Chapter 2 has a lot to do with Solomon still setting the stage for the value and importance of Wisdom. The overall structure and choice he is making to emphasize the value of wisdom is indicative of the importance to know our "WHY" behind anything. Meaning we should know the reason why we follow Jesus (1 Peter 3:15), we should know why school is important, we should know why staying faithful in a marriage is crucial, etc. We also learn the importance of the path we make and the impact that has on people who follow.