Some do's and don'ts for a successful life

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Proverbs 22-24; Psalm 5

TO CHEW ON: "Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
And apply your heart to my knowledge;
For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you;
Let them all be fixed upon your lips,
So that your trust may be in the Lord..." Proverbs 22:17-19

Even though its wisdom is ancient, the advice in Proverbs is as relevant today as ever. The issues addressed in one chapter of today's reading (Proverbs 22) are wide-ranging—from bringing up children to having a good work ethic. Yet the theme of SUCCESS runs through them all. The writer is telling us, to have a successful life you must do some things and refrain from doing others.

DO:

• Seek to have a good reputation - Proverbs 22:1
• Understand your times and guard yourself against possible catastrophe - Proverbs 22:3.
• Live humbly and fear God - Proverbs 22:4,5.
• Train children from the earliest age - Proverbs 22:6
• Be generous and give to the poor - Proverbs 22:9
• Remove cynical contentious people as partners or associates - Proverbs 22:10.
• Love purity and speak with grace - Proverbs 22:11.
• Actively seek wisdom and knowledge - Proverbs 22:17,18.
• Trust in the Lord - Proverbs 22:19
• Work hard to be the best you can be - Proverbs 22:29.

DON'T:

• Live a wilfully sinful life - Proverbs 22:8.
• Be lazy - Proverbs 22:13.
• Ignore the foolishness that is found in your child's heart - Proverbs 22:15.
• Take advantage of the poor and downtrodden - Proverbs 22:23.
• Become intimate with angry people - Proverbs 22:24,25.
• Borrow money or underwrite someone else's loan - Proverbs 22:7, 26, 27.
• Move the borders of your property to increase the size of your plot - Proverbs 22:28

Though living by these do's and don'ts may sound like common sense, some are anti-intuitive—at least anti-intuitive to our 21st century minds. To put them into practice we need to have faith in God and that what He says through Solomon is really wise.
- Being generous makes you rich?
- Gracious speech has more impact than bullying, angry words?
- Borrowing and going into debt is bad?
- Innocent little children need correction and discipline?
Especially when God's wisdom clashes with our modern 'wisdom' we need to cling to Him as we resist going along with the crowd:

"Let them all be fixed on your lips
So that your trust may be in the Lord."

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to trust You and take seriously the wisdom in Your word, especially when it goes against what my peers think, believe, and live by. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 5

MORE: Are you foolish enough?

"When looking back on the lives of men and women of God the tendency is to say - What wonderfully astute wisdom they had! How perfectly they understood all God wanted! The astute mind behind is the Mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the Divine guidance of God through childlike people who were foolish enough to trust God's wisdom and the supernatural equipment of God." - Oswald Chambers, from the October 26th reading of My Utmost for His Highest.

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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.

Principles of success

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 39:1-23


TO CHEW ON: "The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man..." Genesis 39:2

Who of us doesn't want to be known as successful? However, if what happened to Joseph happened to us—we were sold as slaves and then lied about and put in prison—we would probably feel anything but successful. So how did Joseph earn that label?

His success came despite confusing and unfair circumstances. It was not measured by education, favor or rank (though that would come later) but by the way all he set his hand to flourished. Under his management Potiphar's household was more prosperous than ever before. When he was thrown into prison, his trustworthiness, good sense, and administrative talents soon caught the eye of the jail keeper and gave Joseph favor with him.

The writer of Genesis attributes all his success to God: "Then the Lord was with Joseph.... The Lord caused all that he did to succeed.... The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.... But the Lord was with Joseph ... and gave him success...And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed" - Genesis 39:2, 3, 5, 21, 23.

Several principles of God-initiated success are on display in this passage:

1. God-ordained success is not dependent on or measured by our rank or position. Joseph was a successful servant and prisoner. I think we could say that the success that comes from God is available to us whatever our education or lack of it and wherever we find ourselves (at home, in a coffee shop, on the construction site, in the classroom, office or church, or wherever.)

2. God's blessing on our lives may be reflected in the success of those we work for. Potiphar's household reaped the benefits of having Joseph around.

3. A big element of God-initiated success is favor. Joseph gained the favor of the jail keeper. There are many other Bible characters who gained the favor of the powerful people in their lives: Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah are some.

4. God-ordained success is not, finally, about us but about furthering God's bigger purposes. Joseph eventually achieved even greater success when he was installed as one of the most powerful men in Egypt. But it wasn't to feed his own ego but so he could preserve his people, the Hebrews, God's covenant people, the family line from which Jesus would come. When our motivation is to honor God and further His cause on earth, we are good candidates for the kind of God-driven success that Joseph experienced.


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this encouraging story of Joseph. I would love for my life to be a visible testimony of divine blessing and success so that Your honour and glory are furthered as a result of it. Amen.

MORE: Success - what's my role?

We know we don't just sit around and wait for God to drop success into our laps. Joseph was an unknown quantity when he arrived in Pharaoh's jail. He must have done something, demonstrated some initiative, shown some quality of ambition or energy or willingness to be busy in order for the jail keeper to entrust him with responsibility in the first place.  Below are links to three articles on Michael Hyatt's blog that talk about some rubber-hits-the-road elements of success.

• "What's the Secret to Your Success" - by Michael Hyatt

• "12 Strategies for Leadership Success" - by Margaret McSweeney

• "The One Thing Guaranteed to Prevent Your Success (If You Let It)" - by Josh Hood

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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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Spiritual hygiene and diet

Image: Pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 1:1-6

TO CHEW ON: "And whatever he does shall prosper." - Psalm 1:3


A lot leads up to the righteous person's success. There is conscious avoidance—no walking in step with, standing in the way of, or sitting in the company of the wicked, sinners or mockers. (Does even keeping social company with God's enemies imply a certain sympathy with them?)

Instead there is wilful keeping company with the things of God—meditating on His ways (for David the "law," for us the Bible), letting His presence saturate us to the roots so we stay vital and yield fruit.

This speaks to me of the dailiness of good life habits that, once set, need to be maintained. I love the title of a Eugene Peterson book that expresses it well: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.

I am writing this while on holiday. I confess I am not always faithful, while on vacation, in having a daily time of reading the Bible, finding something relevant for life, and praying over the day.

I know that doing this is not something that gets me points with God. Neither do I sense His frown when I miss. But what I do sense in myself is a spiritual weakening, a lack of spiritual energy as I feel a lack of physical spunk when I skip a meal.

We know eating is daily. We can't eat for the future (we can accumulate fat which will keep us nourished for a while, but not forever). Neither can we be lively and fruitful spiritually when we don't guard our spiritual health and eat and drink His words.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to put into daily practice these Psalm 1 habits of spiritual hygiene and diet. 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.

Choose to believe

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 8:40-56

TO CHEW ON: "And He said to her, 'Daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.' … But when Jesus heard it, He answered him saying, 'Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.'" Luke 8:48, 50


The powerful common denominator of faith links these two miracles.

The woman with a twelve-year bleeding problem had a faith that drew God's healing virtue at her touch of Jesus' robe  (Luke 8:48).

To distraught Jairus,  father of the little girl who has just died, Jesus says, "'Do not be afraid; only believe.'"  Jairus must have, for his little girl came back to life (Luke 8:50).

Under the heading "Faith Prescribed" my Thompson Chain Bible walks us down a Bible pathway lit by faith.

Faith assures success:
~In the wonderful OT story of Jehoshaphat defeating the armies of Ammon and Moab with troops led by worshippers, Jehoshaphat begins the day's instructions by telling his people, "Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper" - 2 Chronicles 20:20.

Faith is our duty:
~How do we work the works of God, Jesus' disciples ask? Jesus replies: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent"" - John 6:28,29.

Faith is a weapon and a war:
~It is called a "shield" (Ephesians 6:16) and a "breastplate" (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
~Paul tells Timothy to "Fight the good fight of faith" - 1 Timothy 6:12.

Faith is essential to a relationship with God:
~ "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" - Hebrews 11:6.

Faith is necessary for answered prayer:
~ "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God … But let him ask in faith, with no doubting…" James 1:5,6.

Faith must be united with love:
~ "And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of HIs Son Jesus Christ and love one another…" 1 John 3:23.

For what do you and I need faith today? We can choose to believe!

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, Your words and the Bible's entire tone show me that faith (or unbelief) are a choice. Help me to be a woman of faith. Amen.

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New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Shades of wisdom

Image: Pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Proverbs 8:1-19

TO CHEW ON:  "I love those who love me,
And those who seek me diligently will find me." Proverbs 8:17

This chapter, titled "The Excellence of Wisdom" in my Bible, is a poem about wisdom (actually by wisdom, for Wisdom speaks as if a person throughout).

In the part of Proverbs 8 that is our reading today, wisdom describes herself. Let's look through these 19 verses to compile a list of wisdom's attributes as stated and shown in them.

Wisdom is:

• Bold - The way this chapter starts out with wisdom crying out from hilltops, crossroads and city gates brings to mind another kind of woman. It's as if wisdom, knowing the importance of persuading people to her way is not above using the wiles of the loose woman (Proverbs 9:13-17).
• Prudent: "O you simple ones, understand prudence…" Proverbs 8:5,12.
• Understanding - "… you fools, be of an understanding heart" - Proverbs 8:5,15.
• Recognized and identified by speech - "Listen for I will speak of excellent things, And from the opening of my lips will come right things" - Proverbs 8:6.
• Truthful - "For my mouth will speak truth" - Proverbs 8:8.
• Righteous - "All the words of my mouth are righteousness - Proverbs 8:8, 20. Wisdom also is the fear of God that "hates … the evil way" - Proverbs 8:13,20.
• Not given to perversion - "… nothing crooked or perverse is in them" (the words of her mouth) - Proverbs 8:8, 13.
• A clear communicator - Her words are "… plain to him who understands" - Proverbs 8:9.
• Valuable - Wisdom's instruction is compared to silver, gold and rubies - Proverbs 8:10,11, 18, 19.
• Knowledge - "Receive … knowledge" - Proverbs 8:10, 12.
• Discretion - "I wisdom … find out … discretion" - Proverbs 8:12.
• Humble - "Pride and arrogance … I hate" - Proverbs 8:13.
• Good advice - "Counsel is mine" - Proverbs 8:14.
• Necessary for rulers, nobles and judges - Proverbs 8:15,16.
• A kindred spirit  - "I love those who love me" - Proverbs 8:17.
• Discoverable - "… those who seek me diligently will find me" - Proverbs 8:17.
• Just - "I traverse the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice" - Proverbs 8:20.
• A means to achieve success - "That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth" - Proverbs 8:18,21.

 What stands out for me in this list is that Wisdom—this amazing quality of the companion of the Creator and fellow crafter of the Earth (Proverbs 8:30) is available to those who seek it/her. Bible characters that were gifted with wisdom, like Samuel and Solomon, come to mind. But this gift of wisdom is also available to us moderns.

In reading Ravi Zacharias's memoir, Walking from East to West, I was shocked to discover that  all through elementary and high school Dr. Zacharias (known worldwide for his ability to understand philosophy and defend the Bible) was a miserable failure as a student. His despair at his inability to perform and his fear that he would be a failure in life and a great disappointment to his father were responsible for him attempting suicide as a teen.

But all that changed when he accepted Christ.  In his own words: "During those intense months (following his conversion), as I gobbled up every morsel of learning I could, something changed in my life, causing an about-face I never would have expected: I became a voracious reader" - Ravi Zacharias, Walking From East to West, p. 110.

I would submit that when Jesus entered Ravi Zacharias's life, one of the things he brought was wisdom.

I want to be wise—don't you? Let's take the words of Proverbs 8 and James 1:5-8 to heart and ask God for it.


PRAYER: Dear God, may I be a lover of true wisdom—one who lives wisely in thought, word, and action. 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.