Thursday, March 28th, 2024
Today we are still lingering in the garden of wisdom. All of Proverbs is like walking in a field of wildflowers and seeing and smelling numerous different flowers at the peak of their bloom. There is so much in there that applies to different seasons of our lives or different challenges we may find ourselves in. I know quite a few people that read the Proverb that lines up with the day of the month (because there are 31). It’s a great way to get Proverbs deep into our soul so that Holy Spirit can remind us of these nuggets of gold when they are needed.
As I was reading in Proverbs 9 recently, the difference between wisdom and folly drew my attention. First, I want to start by comparing two verses from that chapter:
Wisdom says:
4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
Folly says:
16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here”;
Yes, you are reading that correctly. The invitations from both Wisdom and Folly are exactly the same. They are both desiring that the simple follow them. Even in the original Hebrew both scriptures use the exact same words. So how does one know which to follow? Let’s look at the next set of scriptures from both:
Wisdom says:
5 “Come, eat of my bread
And drink of the wine I have mixed.
6 Forsake foolishness and live,
And go in the way of understanding…10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
11 For by me your days will be multiplied,
And years of life will be added to you…”Folly says:
17 “Stolen water is sweet,
And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
Now can you smell the rat versus the flower? God is speaking to me that some of us may need to dig a little deeper, gather a little more evidence or sit and wait on Holy Spirit just a little bit longer than we have been. Sometimes we hear something that sounds perfect, and we jump right in without doing anymore due diligence or waiting for any more indication of the motive behind the words. The enemy wants us to live by our impulses. He wants us to think that we must act fast so we don’t miss out. He stirs up fear and anxiety to make us think that we have to jump on board before the train is gone. While there are times when God calls us to act fast, it won’t come with a side dish of anxiety.
Final Thoughts…
As our current world spirals deeper and deeper into a tornado of illusions and purchased lies, it is going to become more and more important for us to learn how to decipher truth from lies, wisdom from folly. I think the greatest weapon many of us have, besides Holy Spirit of course, is time. It only took reading one more line of scripture to discover which was wisdom and which was folly. The enemy wants us to think we can make decisions on the first line of scripture only. He loves when we jam pack our days, schedule every moment of time into some type of activity, increase our efficiencies with every sort of technology we can find and then call it all multitasking. This really just means we have less time and capacity to listen for Holy Spirit’s leading. Holy Spirit is out of time and space. Holy Spirit is not bound by our human constraints. Holy Spirit’s plans don’t run late or work better under pressure. Take some extra time today to let Holy Spirit speak. It could be the difference between acting in wisdom and acting like a fool.