THERE IS A WAY THINGS WORK
Those of you who have been to our Boot Camp have heard John Eldredge say repeatedly, “There is a way things work”. That could be the one-line theme of the book of Proverbs in the Bible. There is a way things work. If you learn it and live by it, things will go well with you. If you don’t, they won’t.
The Way Things Work
Wisdom is the Way. It was by God’s wisdom that everything was created. The word is CHOKMA in Hebrew. (Clear your throat while you say it and you’ll get the pronunciation.) Like blueprints and order that existed first in the mind of God, there is a pattern to things. Those who learn the pattern and work with it find life and health and wealth and happiness. Those who ignore the pattern destroy their lives and the lives of those around them. Proverbs calls the first type of person wise and the second type fools.
How to be wise
Proverbs tells us what wisdom is and how important it is. More importantly, it tells us how to get it. Listen to your parents who hand it down to you. Observe it for yourself in the world around you. Aquire it by hanging around others who have it. Learn from your own experience. Most of all, fear the LORD. That’s where it all starts.
The Fear of the LORD
The fear of the LORD is a strange idea to most of us. We have read 1 John where it says perfect love casts out fear. We have tried to overcome our fear of God that made us run from him. Jesus revealed God as a loving Father we don’t need to be afraid of. So what gives?
Fearing the Lord is a shortcut to wisdom. It puts your whole life in perspective. There are a lot of things you can fear in this life. You can fear danger, poverty, injustice, disease, death, the devil and the opinions of others. Put them all in a room with the LORD and suddenly they come into perspective. What are any of these things to God? They all exist under his wise management of the good world he created. And if the only one truly worthy of your fear is the one who loves you the way Jesus said and demonstrated, there is nothing left to fear. The fear of the LORD means God is your largest concern. It’s a shortcut to wisdom. And it is the other side of the coin of trusting God.
Join us Sunday as we begin this new series in Wisdom. It would be a great one to invite a friend to, even if they don’t believe in Jesus yet.