The Word To LIve By:7-9-26
Phil Waggoner
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5,6
The Word To Live By: Yesterday we began to talk
about having an armada of scriptures in our heart and in our mind to use in
life. (An armada is a fleet of war ships.) Since Ephesians 6:12 tells us that
our fight is against “powers, against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Heavenly
places is not heaven where God lives. It is the atmosphere above the earth
where the god of this world lives.) Then, in verses 16 and 17, the Bible says,
instructing us, “In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with
which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God.” In Luke 6:46-48, Jesus told us
to build our lives on a firm foundation by using the tools He gives us to build
with, so we are looking at the tools the Word gives us to use in Proverbs 3.
These are power tools, not hand tools that require great effort on our part.
They are plugged into the power of God and switched on by our faith in that
power. That’s what verses 5 & 6 are saying. The next tools I see are in
verse 7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.” Humility and respect and honor for God in our
everyday life are some of most powerful tools we can use to build our lives on.
James 4:10 tells us to, “Humble yourself in the sight of God and He will
lift you up.” In James 4:6, God
gives grace to the humble. Then 1 Peter 5:5,6 is one of those armada ships, “Likewise
you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all
of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility,
for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore,
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time…” How do you humble yourself? Verse 7, “Casting all your care
upon Him, for He cares for you.” (You
cast your care on Him by using the tools in Philippians 4:6-8.) The fear of the
Lord is an attitude as much as it is an action. It’s understanding that “In
Him we live and move and have our being,” not boasting in our own power
(Acts 17:28). And evil is an action. I
think of clearing my workspace of things that will slow my progress down. Evil
is anything that is morally or ethically
wrong. When you get all forms of lying, cheating, and stealing out of your life,
you’d be surprised at how much easier it is to mature in the things of God. The
next tool I see is one of the most powerful ones at your disposal.
Read through the Bible in a year: Mark 15:1-20; 1 Kings 10; Hosea 11:12-12:14;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 9, Matthew 5:1-24, Acts 9:
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160