Proverbs 2:1-15 ESV
“My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.”
This is a beautiful picture of what it looks like to have genuine God-given and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ. We who believe in Jesus Christ ought to be people of integrity who treasure up God’s commandments (New Covenant) within us. We most certainly should be those who are making our ears attentive to the wisdom of God and of his word, who incline our hearts to understanding and to following after his ways and his truth. For we want to now follow his ways and to do as he commands.
For we don’t gather up all this knowledge and wisdom and understanding just so we can then disregard it and go our own merry way. For we don’t seek after the Lord just so we can escape hell and get a free ride into heaven. We seek after the Lord because we want to become his possession, and because we want to be his bride and have him as our spiritual husband. And this is because we want to give up our self-life in order to now surrender our lives to the Lord in submission to his will for our lives, for we love him.
For to be a believer in Jesus Christ God requires that we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Now we must put behind us our former lives of living in sin so that we can follow our Lord in obedience to his commands. For if sin is what we obey, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.
For as followers of Jesus Christ we are to be those who are walking in the fear of the Lord, who are giving our Lord honor, respect, true worship, obedience, surrender, and submission, and who take God and his word seriously, who believe his promises, in their full context, and who believe his warnings, too, in their full context with regard to whom these promises and these warnings apply. For all of God’s promises have conditions, so we can’t claim his promises if we don’t meet the conditions.
We must be people of God who respect and who honor the sound wisdom that he gives to those who walk in integrity and who are upright in heart, mind, and behavior, and who do not shirk his wisdom in order to do whatever our flesh desires. And he will be a shield of protection for us from the enemy of our souls if we seek after his wisdom and if we apply his wisdom to our daily walks of faith in him. For he will watch over us, and he will guide our steps in the way that we should go when we yield to him.
And our Lord will deliver us from the way of evil when he truly is our Lord and Master. For we are listening to him, and we are following him in his ways, and thus we are also those who are resisting the devil and who are fleeing temptation and who are drawing near to God in full assurance of faith, in practice. And he will deliver us from the mouths of people of perverted speech whose God is not the Lord but themselves and their own sinful desires and practices, who walk in the ways of darkness.
And many are such people, many of whom profess faith in Jesus Christ and who are convinced that heaven is their eternal destiny but who forsake the paths of uprightness in order to walk in the ways of wickedness. For they are those who rejoice in doing evil and who delight in the perverseness of evil. For they do not walk the narrow way that leads to heaven, but they walk the wide and the crooked path that leads to destruction, for they are devious in their ways, who lie to cover up their secret sins, hoping no one will know.
But we who are of true faith in Jesus Christ, we have a faith which is gifted to us by God, for it comes from God, and so it is persuaded of God. And it is not of the flesh nor of the will of man, nor of our own doing. And if this faith comes from God, which it does, and if persuaded of God, then it will submit to the will and purpose of God for our salvation. And his will is that we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him daily in obedience to his commands and in walking in his ways and in his truth and in his righteousness.
So, please understand that genuine faith in Jesus Christ, the kind of faith which saves us from hell and which promises us heaven, requires death to sin and living to righteousness, as a matter of life practice. It requires walks of obedience to the Lord and that we no longer make sin our practice. It doesn’t mean we will be absolutely perfect in every way, but that sin will no longer be our habit, but now righteousness and obedience to our Lord will be our practice, by the grace of God, in the strength and wisdom of God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
My God
By William Robinson Jr.
Lyrics altered to say “My God” instead of “My Guy”
Nothing you could say could tear me away from my God,
Nothing you could do 'cause I'm stuck like glue to my God.
I'm sticking to my God like a stamp to a letter,
Like birds of a feather we stick together,
I'm tellin' you from the start I can't be torn apart from my God.
Nothing you could do could make me untrue to my God,
Nothing you could buy could make me tell a lie to my God.
I gave my God my word of honor to be faithful, and I'm gonna,
You best be believing I won't be deceiving my God.
There's not a man today who could take me away from my God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=girW7nTNnMQ
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Note: Not an endorsement of the Catholic faith and practice (see video)
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