pray

18
Jan
2023

Fear God or Foolishness

The theme of the book of Proverbs is generally agreed to be Proverbs 1:7.

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

There are 2 groups of people in this verse. Those that fear the Lord and those that do not.  I understand things so much better if I break them down into a list and sometimes I need a picture to also help me illustrate the point. Let’s make a list out of this verse.

Fear the Lord

Accept/admire/cherish wisdom

Accept/admire/cherish instruction

Fear the Lord

Beginning of knowledge

Fools

Despise Wisdom

Despise Instriction

Dishonor/scorn/insult the Lord

No Knowledge

In order to fear the Lord, we must first be willing to be humble before the Lord. We have to realize that the answers to life’s most important questions are found in God’s Word. When faced with any decision in life whether big or small, we must seek God through prayer and reading His Word to find answers. When we are not sure what choice we should make, we must seek the counsel of those that are wise.

Since we see that a fool despises wisdom and instruction, we see that the fool is seeking to make themselves happy. They do not want someone to get in the way of their happiness. If they seek the counsel of someone that disagrees with their desires, they will reject their wise counsel.

A fool wants to satisfy their desires for happiness or admiration from others. Maybe they see their way of doing things as an easier way of life. It could be that following the path of wisdom will be hard.

The book of Proverbs is a manual that helps us understand how to live. It helps us understand the character of mankind. What are the characteristics of a wise person? What are the characteristics of a foolish person?

Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs to his son. Solomon had many sons and there is not a specific son that it was written to, but it was written so his children could learn from the wisdom that he had been given by God.  However, we see in I Kings 12 that his son did not learn the wisdom that his father was hoping to pass on to him.

“And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.” (I Kings 11:43). Rehoboam was faced with a decision to lighten the work load that his father had put upon the people or make it heavier. So Rehoboam sought counsel with his father’s advisors and then he sought counsel with the young men who he had grown up with. He listened to his friends rather than the wise counsel from his father’s advisors. The people revolted and Rehoboam feared for his life. This is known as Rehoboam’s folly.

As we seek to become wise people, we need to be sure that the people we spend most of our time with and people we go to for advice are wise. Do these people that I seek advice from cherish instruction? Are they humble?

What do we do when we have conflicting words of advice from different people, or what someone shares with us conflicts with our own desires? What do we do?

  1. Go back to God’s Word
  2. Pray
  3. Be sure that the people you are seeking advice from are godly

If we make a decision that is in contradiction to God’s Word, it is not a wise choice. Just because something feels right doesn’t make it right. Eating a quart of ice cream in one sitting feels good, but is it wise? We cannot make a decision based on our feelings. They will change. We must make our decisions based on the solid truth of Scripture.

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments
17
Mar
2021
Journey with the Lord as my Shepherd

Journey with the Lord as my Shepherd

I love to travel. I love going to different places and staying at hotels and eating at different restaurants and meeting different people. I love to be at airports and see all the different people hustling to get to their next destination. I love an adventure. I love a journey.

I know that I probably like these things because I don’t have to travel for work, and if I did than I wouldn’t want to travel anymore. I love to be at home too.

I love the journey, not just the destination. What about you? Do you enjoy the journey or do you just want to get to the destination?

I have been on a journey this week, but not a physical journey. I have been on a spiritual journey, and it has been so amazing for my walk with the Lord. I just wanted to share with whoever wants to read this.

In Sunday school, we began a study on prayer. Prayer has been something I have been trying to focus on in my walk with the Lord. I am actually reading a book right now called Draw the Circle. It is about praying circles around the things you are praying for. It is taken from the idea of the Israelites walking around the wall of Jericho for seven days before God brought the walls down. Imagine the Israelites walking around a wall with their enemies towering above them. That would produce some major fear in anyone’s heart, but the Israelites followed God’s direction and did just as He commanded. Imagine how much prayer was going in the hearts and minds of these people as they walked.

Our Sunday school teacher challenged us to pray through Psalm 23 throughout the week. I was so excited to follow his direction. I have Psalm 23 memorized so it was easy for me to review and pray through this Psalm when I was driving or folding laundry or making dinner. But I also spent time on my knees with my Bible open to Psalm 23.

The things I began to see in this passage that I have missed in the past, and the beauty of using Psalm 23 as a guide to my prayers was transformational. This journey I have been on this past week has transformed my prayers.

As I considered each of the verses and used them to guide my prayers, I realized how I was praying God’s will for my life and for those that I was praying for. Don’t you sometimes wonder when you are praying if you are praying God’s will? I do. When I pray God’s word, though, I am praying His will back to him.

Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

So often when I have thought about this verse, I thought about “wanting” as my “needs.” I have needs and since God is my Shepherd He will provide for my needs. How many times have you prayed for God to supply your needs, but what you thought was a need was not a need but a desire for things to go the way you wanted them to go?

I have written in the past about idols of our hearts. An idol of our heart is anything that we want that we do not have, and many times we are willing to sin to get that want satisfied.

If I am looking to the Lord to be my Shepherd, if I am worshipping Him for who He is, I won’t be wanting. If the Lord as my Shepherd is sufficient enough to meet my needs and I am worshipping Him as the Lord of my life, than I will not be wanting. If I am always looking to God to meet my needs, then I won’t be wanting.

If I am looking to anything other than God to meet my needs, than I will be wanting.

As I have prayed this verse for myself and others, I have realized how selfishly I pray for myself and quite honestly for others.

Psalm 23:3 “…He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

The goal of our lives is to honor God in all we do. All we do needs to be for His name’s sake, not for our name’s sake. If the Lord is truly our Shepherd and we allow Him to lead us in paths of righteousness, not only will we not want we will also be living our lives for His name’s sake, not ours.

We will be living life for His glory. This may seem like we won’t get our needs met, but the contrary is true. I have found that the more I seek after my Shepherd and trust in His plan, not only will my needs be met but I will have an abundance that will be overflowing into the lives of others.

I want to challenge to get on your knees and open your Bible to Psalm 23 and begin to pray it through for yourself and all those on your prayer list. Then watch what God will do. You never know where this journey will take you.

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 2 comments
01
Apr
2020

Be Thankful

How is your schedule going? Have you put one into place and started following it? Have you accomplished all those things on your “to do” list that you have always wanted to do, but never seemed to have time to accomplish? I am struggling with feeling like there are just too many things to do. Since we all seem to have extra time on our hands, I feel like there are so many different avenues that people are suggesting of things for me to do. There are webinars to watch and podcasts to listen to. The lady that I follow for my morning exercises is taking longer for my workouts, since she figures I have more time. I certainly hope I am in better shape after this is over since my workouts are going longer.

Be selective

Just like when we are able to go out and do anything we want with anyone we want, we still need to say “no” to a few things, we need to practice that same principle. We still do not have to do everything. We must enjoy this time of not having a packed schedule and enjoy the things we are doing rather than rush through them. Just because we are getting suggestions from everyone to do everything does not mean that we have to say “yes” to these things. Make your schedule and be selective at what you say “yes” to. We have had the privilege of having our oldest daughter and her husband here with us for an extended period of time. Rather than go about a regular routine of all the chores and work that I could get done, I have enjoyed spending time with them playing games, watching movies, going on walks, making food together, working on a puzzle together, etc.  What a joy to make these extra memories together.

Be intentional with others

During our normal days, we often let our schedule dictate who we spend time with. Now that our schedules look different, we need to be intentional in reaching out to people. Call friends and family members you wouldn’t normally communicate with on a regular basis and check-in with them and see how they are doing. I am sure a conversation with someone new will brighten and cheer both of your days. Get out the stationary out and write someone a letter. The post office is still running. The postal delivery workers practice social distancing routinely in their jobs as they are out delivering your mail.

 Spend time in prayer and Bible Study

The most important thing we need to do during this time is to spend time praying and reading God’s Word. We need to be praying as a nation that this virus will cease to spread and those that are infected with it will recover. We need to be praying for the leaders of our country to make wise decisions regarding our health and how to stop the spread of this virus. We need to be praying for each other that we would learn through this experience rather than get angry and resentful over it.

Be thankful

Every day we have a choice to be thankful for the events in our days or to grumble and complain about them. As a family since this has started, we have been sharing one thing at dinner every night that we are thankful for. Yesterday was my birthday. Before all of this started, I was going to be home alone for my birthday. I was so happy yesterday to be able to share my birthday with my family than be home by myself. If I could pick, I would rather that my daughters be at college and my daughter who is a senior be able to continue her senior year at college as normal. However, since that is not part of God’s plan, I am thankful that yesterday was filled with such love and joy and memories with my family.

With every difficult and challenging situation, we must find the things to be thankful for rather than grumble. We must be sure to enjoy our days and not fill them to overflowing with too many things. Enjoy each day, don’t rush through it. Be sure to spend time reading God’s Word and praying.

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (II Chron. 7:14)

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments