Proverbs 7:1-5 says,...
Today's verses are Proverbs 7:1-5, which read,
v.1, 2 - My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Solomon gives his sons some "keeps" here at the start of chapter 7. To "keep" is to guard, observe, and give heed. It is an active measure to make sure that God's word not only has a place in your life but is acted upon to protect it, elevate it, and bow in submission to it.
To "treasure" is to hide and store up. The commandments of God I am stacking up in my life because I keeping His Word that contains them. They do not diminish my life but actually add to it. They may look like restrictions but those restrictions have protective qualities to living the life that is honoring of God. To truly live is to follow our Creator's wisdom, commandments, and instructions.
We protect our eyes. We treasure them for they give us sight. We shield them from the bright sun. We operate on them to restore sight when cataracts have clouded them over. We feel deeply for those who are losing sight, even our pets when they are getting older and not able to see as they once did. How do we see God? We see Him through His Word. His Word is our eyes that need to be kept and treasured.
v.3 - Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
A couple actions are given here to guide us on how do we keep and treasure God's Word. We put into place some systems that help us to experience that life that God has laid out for us. I do believe that this is where we get the expression to tie a string to your finger to remember something. The point is to make God's Word visible in your life. Outwardly you see God's Word in your world because you have put it there.
At the same time that you are having God's Word visible to your outside world, you are also working to having it within you. You may have it visibly on a plague hanging in the hallway of your house but those words you are able to recall because you have memorized and meditated on them in your heart. This is another learning mechanism when you physically write something down and our hands are engaged to be involved in the process. You purposefully make the list that you will refer to remind yourself of what needs to be accomplished. When you write God's Words on the tablet of your heart then you are recording them in a way to remember and recall them and you will use a variety of techniques to do this task.
v.4, 5 - Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your intimate friend; that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
Another practice is given here to keep and treasure God's Word and that is to say it. You speak God's Word and you speak of God's Word as something precious to you. By calling it your sister you are putting a family connection to it that brings a sense of protection, because that is what you do for your sister, you protect her, but also a sense of holiness because she is very different than the adulteress or the foreigner. Your sister is treated with the greatest respect and honor and in this process of doing this with God's wisdom, you are kept from one who is going against God's design and God's words.
The adulteress is the one who is not following God's design of a holy life and the foreigner is a stranger to God's words. Both of these are devices of Satan to get us to lessen our keeping and treasuring of God's wisdom and thus reducing the protection of it to our lives and the experiencing of true life from our Creator. So what do you have in place to keep and treasure God's Word?
Is it visible in your life? Do you have it where you can see it? Maybe a note on the refrigerator, bathroom mirror, post it note on the computer, or new wall hanging or word art is needed of His Word in your home. Are you saying it out loud and speaking of it as treasured and honored? Do you have systems and procedures in place that protect the time you have with God's Word? All of these words are action words that indicate that God's Word is not going to just jump into our lives but we need to put it there to receive the results of what is intended to do for those who know it, love it, and obey it. Let's pray.
"Lord, what a treasure we have in our hands. We know that others in our world still do not have this privilege that we have to read and display Your Word. We pray for those who diligently work to translate the Bible into new languages so others can treasure and keep it. Help us to put in place those actions needed by us to really live life because we know what life is all about. Amen."
Pastor Adam
v.1, 2 - My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Solomon gives his sons some "keeps" here at the start of chapter 7. To "keep" is to guard, observe, and give heed. It is an active measure to make sure that God's word not only has a place in your life but is acted upon to protect it, elevate it, and bow in submission to it.
To "treasure" is to hide and store up. The commandments of God I am stacking up in my life because I keeping His Word that contains them. They do not diminish my life but actually add to it. They may look like restrictions but those restrictions have protective qualities to living the life that is honoring of God. To truly live is to follow our Creator's wisdom, commandments, and instructions.
We protect our eyes. We treasure them for they give us sight. We shield them from the bright sun. We operate on them to restore sight when cataracts have clouded them over. We feel deeply for those who are losing sight, even our pets when they are getting older and not able to see as they once did. How do we see God? We see Him through His Word. His Word is our eyes that need to be kept and treasured.
v.3 - Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
A couple actions are given here to guide us on how do we keep and treasure God's Word. We put into place some systems that help us to experience that life that God has laid out for us. I do believe that this is where we get the expression to tie a string to your finger to remember something. The point is to make God's Word visible in your life. Outwardly you see God's Word in your world because you have put it there.
At the same time that you are having God's Word visible to your outside world, you are also working to having it within you. You may have it visibly on a plague hanging in the hallway of your house but those words you are able to recall because you have memorized and meditated on them in your heart. This is another learning mechanism when you physically write something down and our hands are engaged to be involved in the process. You purposefully make the list that you will refer to remind yourself of what needs to be accomplished. When you write God's Words on the tablet of your heart then you are recording them in a way to remember and recall them and you will use a variety of techniques to do this task.
v.4, 5 - Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your intimate friend; that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
Another practice is given here to keep and treasure God's Word and that is to say it. You speak God's Word and you speak of God's Word as something precious to you. By calling it your sister you are putting a family connection to it that brings a sense of protection, because that is what you do for your sister, you protect her, but also a sense of holiness because she is very different than the adulteress or the foreigner. Your sister is treated with the greatest respect and honor and in this process of doing this with God's wisdom, you are kept from one who is going against God's design and God's words.
The adulteress is the one who is not following God's design of a holy life and the foreigner is a stranger to God's words. Both of these are devices of Satan to get us to lessen our keeping and treasuring of God's wisdom and thus reducing the protection of it to our lives and the experiencing of true life from our Creator. So what do you have in place to keep and treasure God's Word?
Is it visible in your life? Do you have it where you can see it? Maybe a note on the refrigerator, bathroom mirror, post it note on the computer, or new wall hanging or word art is needed of His Word in your home. Are you saying it out loud and speaking of it as treasured and honored? Do you have systems and procedures in place that protect the time you have with God's Word? All of these words are action words that indicate that God's Word is not going to just jump into our lives but we need to put it there to receive the results of what is intended to do for those who know it, love it, and obey it. Let's pray.
"Lord, what a treasure we have in our hands. We know that others in our world still do not have this privilege that we have to read and display Your Word. We pray for those who diligently work to translate the Bible into new languages so others can treasure and keep it. Help us to put in place those actions needed by us to really live life because we know what life is all about. Amen."
Pastor Adam
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