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Wisdom imitates God (WW#13/Prov 1:7).
Prayer
Heavenly Father, all glory and thanks be to you for this new day. I do not know what this day may have in store, but I bless you for this gift. Whether trial or joy, you do all things well. Please help me, Lord, to be wholly dedicated unto you, consecrated and purified by Christ’s blood, and dedicated to serve and worship you in spirit and in truth. I pray that you may unite my heart to truly fear your name. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Proverbs 1:7.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”
Meditation
A fifth aspect of fearing God is that in our fear of God we ought to be moved to imitate him. Imitation follows on the heels of admiration, so this is a logical inference from our previous meditation. When we admire someone, or at least see something admirable about them, something inside of us wants to be like them, and to some extent we naturally begin to imitate them. Children have a natural tendency to imitate their parents. They will copy phrases and mannerisms, often showing interest in many of the same kinds of things. The New Testament confirms and expresses this explicitly as Paul calls us to imitate Christ (1 Cor 11:1). So also the Lord Jesus instructs us to be holy as God is holy, which is imitation (Mt 5:48).
Be ye doers of the word…
The Book of Proverbs is a book showing us how to imitate God by revealing to us his mannerisms and tastes on a human level, as it were. Consider Proverbs 8:13 as an example: “The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil.” Now think about that: to fear the LORD is to hate evil. In other words, to fear God is to have our hearts shaped to reflect God’s heart, to be formed in accordance with what he loves and hates. That’s imitation – to fear God is to imitate, to image God. As we study the book of Proverbs, we will be trained in righteousness in this way, trained to conform to the character of God. What higher motivation could we find to motivate us to give our attention to this book? The book of Proverbs holds out great promise to us indeed!
More generally, we ought always to read scripture with the aim of seeking to grow in our knowledge of God. What is he like? We must seriously pursue theological study, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may have before our minds the pattern of his holiness for our imitation. Does this kind of serious study characterise your life? If not, you have much growth yet to make in the fear of the Lord. Let me encourage and exhort you to begin today! SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Gracious God,
we confess that when we consider imitating you,
Lord,
there's a lot left to be desired in our lives.
We pray as we pursue consistent,
steady instruction in your word and growth in the knowledge of you.
Lord, that by your Spirit's illuminating,
life-changing,
transforming presence,
that you would open the eyes of our hearts,
that by faith we may see your glories and we may be moved in our desire to imitate you.
And out of the transformation of our hearts, we may take consistent daily actions.
in pursuit of our imitation of you.
May you mercifully help us in this.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe
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By Reformed devotions from all of scripture.Prayer
Heavenly Father, all glory and thanks be to you for this new day. I do not know what this day may have in store, but I bless you for this gift. Whether trial or joy, you do all things well. Please help me, Lord, to be wholly dedicated unto you, consecrated and purified by Christ’s blood, and dedicated to serve and worship you in spirit and in truth. I pray that you may unite my heart to truly fear your name. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Proverbs 1:7.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”
Meditation
A fifth aspect of fearing God is that in our fear of God we ought to be moved to imitate him. Imitation follows on the heels of admiration, so this is a logical inference from our previous meditation. When we admire someone, or at least see something admirable about them, something inside of us wants to be like them, and to some extent we naturally begin to imitate them. Children have a natural tendency to imitate their parents. They will copy phrases and mannerisms, often showing interest in many of the same kinds of things. The New Testament confirms and expresses this explicitly as Paul calls us to imitate Christ (1 Cor 11:1). So also the Lord Jesus instructs us to be holy as God is holy, which is imitation (Mt 5:48).
Be ye doers of the word…
The Book of Proverbs is a book showing us how to imitate God by revealing to us his mannerisms and tastes on a human level, as it were. Consider Proverbs 8:13 as an example: “The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil.” Now think about that: to fear the LORD is to hate evil. In other words, to fear God is to have our hearts shaped to reflect God’s heart, to be formed in accordance with what he loves and hates. That’s imitation – to fear God is to imitate, to image God. As we study the book of Proverbs, we will be trained in righteousness in this way, trained to conform to the character of God. What higher motivation could we find to motivate us to give our attention to this book? The book of Proverbs holds out great promise to us indeed!
More generally, we ought always to read scripture with the aim of seeking to grow in our knowledge of God. What is he like? We must seriously pursue theological study, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may have before our minds the pattern of his holiness for our imitation. Does this kind of serious study characterise your life? If not, you have much growth yet to make in the fear of the Lord. Let me encourage and exhort you to begin today! SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Gracious God,
we confess that when we consider imitating you,
Lord,
there's a lot left to be desired in our lives.
We pray as we pursue consistent,
steady instruction in your word and growth in the knowledge of you.
Lord, that by your Spirit's illuminating,
life-changing,
transforming presence,
that you would open the eyes of our hearts,
that by faith we may see your glories and we may be moved in our desire to imitate you.
And out of the transformation of our hearts, we may take consistent daily actions.
in pursuit of our imitation of you.
May you mercifully help us in this.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe