Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Come To Jesus Meetin part 2


This morning I got up and debated, do I move on to Proverbs 20?  It is the 20th and I want to stay on track, so I tried.  I prayed and opened my Bible and started reading Proverbs 20.  There were some great verses, but my attention kept going back to Proverbs 19, verse 2.  It was calling me, you know, like those peanut butter cups that you have on the top shelf in the pantry for the trick or treaters, I know I buy candy early to prepare early (yeah right) and then I wind up buying more candy the day before or the day of Halloween, cause “I’m just gonna eat one or two pieces”.  That candy is gone and you’ve added a pound or two if you do that every day.  (I need to do that with my bible reading, I wonder if it would help if I hid it in the pantry, what if it tasted like chocolate…hmm, probably not.)

But anyway, thanks for taking that bunny trail with me.  LOL.

So I finally turned the page back to Proverbs 19:2

                        “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge,
                               nor to be hasty and miss the way.”

“To be hasty”.  That’s where I had to stop yesterday because my 30 minutes with God had turned into 2.5 hours and I had to get to work.  It was an awesome morning though and I seriously thought on that portion of the verse and just turned it over and over in my head all day (like a jawbreaker for my brain).  So this morning, “to be hasty” was speaking just as loud.  I am always in a hurry, rushed, moving, going, driving myself and my family a little crazy.  I look at my calendar and there are very few days that are blank.  But even more then that, I look back over my life and see decisions that were made in haste.  Decisions that impacted the rest of my life, some positive and some negatively. 

Buyer Beware!  I have been a salesman and so I speak with a bit of expertise on this.  It is imperative that once you have someone interested that you “close the sale” as soon as possible.  Some salesmen are high pressured (that door-to-door salesman trying to get me to buy a cleaner).  They rush, pressure, and attempt to “close the deal” as soon as possible, haste.  They are excited, pumped up, zealous about what it is they are selling.  They are willing to provide knowledge but only to a certain degree, not enough time to allow you to think about it, “if you buy now you can get 2 for price of 1 or I’ll cut the price, this price is only good right now, in an hour it goes up...(does that even make sense?) etc.”  Happens so many times we even have a term for it, “buyers remorse”.  After you slow down, take a breath and can think, you realize perhaps that was not a wise investment.  It does not matter if it was 10 dollars or 100,000 dollars.  If you regret having spent it, it is a loss, a mistake, an unwise decision. 

Imagine a similar scenario the guy that you see at school that you are excited to see, can’t stop thinking about him, seriously liking the way he looks, how he laughs, he’s popular and funny….but what do you KNOW about him?  Really know.  Don’t be hasty and alter the path that God has for you.  But we get in such a hurry, as teenagers to grow up, as young adults to “never be alone” and in our haste and due to zeal (lust and excitement) we make decisions that forever alter our path.  You must know BEFORE what your boundaries are, your own self worth, and to know you before you even attempt to know someone else, no matter how excited, how much ZEAL that person professes to have for you.  Knowledge is priceless. 

This one verse holds so much wisdom for everything in our life.  Zeal is great when it is built upon knowledge and you can be quick in your decisions when you KNOW that you are open to God’s leading but this does not happen overnight.  You have to learn, grow, and understand. 

I have often heard the saying, “haste makes waste” and often attributed it to cooking or making something, but it applies to all aspects of our lives.  If we are hasty with our decisions we waste time and could chose poorly and wind up having to either repair or apologize for our mistake, which waste our resources, (time, money, etc.)   How many times have I, in my haste, made a decision that later I wish I hadn’t?  How many times have you?  But instead of slowing down and heeding what Proverbs 19:2 warns us about we continue to get busier and busier, to rush and “make haste” and in the noise that we create in our lives we cannot hear God, cannot understand His desire for us and in our haste to decide what We should do, who WE should be with, and where WE should go, WE drown out the Father’s voice.  The voice that already knows who, where, and what about our lives and can provide the direction, the wisdom that will protect our hearts, our minds and our lives.  

God doesn’t want us to “miss the way”.  He provided “the way, the truth, and the light” in His son, Jesus.  Think my friends, I know I will try even harder now, to understand and obtain knowledge so that my passion for Christ and His teachings can be used for His glory and not be misguided.  I will slow down, become intentional in the decisions that I make and not be hasty, shutting out the noise and distractions of the world so that God can give me the direction He would have me go, so that I do not “miss the way.” 

What a wonderful comfort to know He is in control. 

God I pray for each heart that cries out to You.  God I ask that you help them to find the knowledge and reassurance that Your Word assures we are all given.  God I thank you for being so patient and loving and forgiving of all your children, when we, in haste, make decisions that are not best for us.  I know, because You have done it in my life, that when we are ready to embrace Your will for our lives and Your guidance, that the broad, winding path becomes straight and narrow but filled with the joy of seeing the world with Your eyes and Your heart, not mans.   Thank you Father for all that You are and all that You have given each one of us.  In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

1 comment:

Renee Ingoe said...

Wow Leigh, thanks for this 2 day study on one verse. Great example for not being hasty. (LOL) I have found yes, I am too hasty sometimes and miss the way. Thanks for sharing your heart.