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TO CHEW ON: "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord." Proverbs 1:28,29
Wisdom is speaking here. She addresses those who have turned their backs on their parent's instruction (Proverbs 1:8-9), got involved in crime (Proverbs 1:10-19), and persistently resisted her plea to go another way (Proverbs 1:20-25).
She warns, there will come a time when ignoring her—that is, refusing to choose the fear of God—will have consequences. One of them is wisdom's silence.
If we equate wisdom and the fear of God to God, we could say that indifference to God, ignoring His will as revealed in the Bible, is one of the reasons our prayers go unanswered.
James describes a similar frustration and God-silence:
"You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" - James 4:2-3.
If we are in a time when God seems silent, when it feels like He's ignoring us, maybe one of the things we should examine our lives for is who or what we've really been fearing (showing respect to, in awe of, conforming our lives to get the approval and praise of, running after). Is it God? Or something / someone else?
PRAYER: Dear God, please show me the deceitfulness of my own heart—so resourceful at sneaking in its own idols and pleasures. Help me to understand what the fear of You looks like in each situation. Amen
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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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