"Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman." Proverbs 2:16
Wisdom is God's gift to those who are making an attempt at living life according to God's manual: the Bible. Wisdom helps the follower identify situations that require either caution or an emergency escape plan. Gaining wisdom is a process that starts with trusting God and grows as we rely on God to provide for us. To help with this concept, I like to envision a video game where I am presented with situations throughout my day where I have to make choices. If I make a righteous choice or decision, I earn some righteous coins. If I make a poor choice or decision, then it costs me some of my coins. A good choice may give me 10 coins and a bad decision may take away 2 coins. This analogy has many faults but please allow me some leeway in order to get this concept across. Obviously God doesn't put limits on his love for us and every sin is considered equally bad no matter how small. The underlying concept is that there is value in doing what is right and as we continue to do what is right, God continues to give us more wisdom.
Gaining wisdom takes time. You have to experience many challenging situations before you can "Level Up" - to continue with the gaming theme. As you make your way through life, you begin to recognize situations sooner. Your wisdom will help you avoid problem areas where your friends or acquaintances that may not be spending time in the Bible may not recognize the situation as something that warrants caution. Remember knowledge is not wisdom. I can have a great deal of book knowledge and still have no "Common Sense".
This verse is really referring to immoral people and not just immoral women. Immorality seems to have become the new normal. It's amazing to me what has become acceptable to society just in my lifetime. Spending time in Proverbs will help you gain wisdom and gaining wisdom will help you identify immorality before you find yourself in deep trouble. That's really the message from this verse.
I recall a time many years ago when my friends were telling me about their situations and how surprised they were that these situations unfolded the way they did and so quickly. "It just sorta happened. I didn't want it to.. but it did... so what's a person to do? You just can't walk away from this kinda thing." Because of their inability to identify a situation as an extreme emergency, they lost their wife, their family, many of their friends and carried around a great deal of guilt for their actions. Gaining wisdom will help you see how these situations may play out before they run you over. When you see these situations for what they truly are you will not be enticed by them.
God loves us all just the way we are. He wants us to come to Him with our questions and concerns like we talk to our best friends. He has a better plan for our lives than we can ever imagine and He wants us to turn our lives over to Him so He can provide us with a life uncommon; a life that surpasses our wildest imagination. He knows what we want and His plan for our lives perfectly aligns to our purpose in this world.... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'd be interested in hearing from you as to what verse from Proverbs had an impact on you. If you would like to add anything, please post a message. I hope you're keeping up on your "Proverbs Challenge" and remember you gain wisdom the more you spend time in Proverbs.
The Shepherd
Return to The Proverbs Challenge
Wisdom is God's gift to those who are making an attempt at living life according to God's manual: the Bible. Wisdom helps the follower identify situations that require either caution or an emergency escape plan. Gaining wisdom is a process that starts with trusting God and grows as we rely on God to provide for us. To help with this concept, I like to envision a video game where I am presented with situations throughout my day where I have to make choices. If I make a righteous choice or decision, I earn some righteous coins. If I make a poor choice or decision, then it costs me some of my coins. A good choice may give me 10 coins and a bad decision may take away 2 coins. This analogy has many faults but please allow me some leeway in order to get this concept across. Obviously God doesn't put limits on his love for us and every sin is considered equally bad no matter how small. The underlying concept is that there is value in doing what is right and as we continue to do what is right, God continues to give us more wisdom.
Gaining wisdom takes time. You have to experience many challenging situations before you can "Level Up" - to continue with the gaming theme. As you make your way through life, you begin to recognize situations sooner. Your wisdom will help you avoid problem areas where your friends or acquaintances that may not be spending time in the Bible may not recognize the situation as something that warrants caution. Remember knowledge is not wisdom. I can have a great deal of book knowledge and still have no "Common Sense".
This verse is really referring to immoral people and not just immoral women. Immorality seems to have become the new normal. It's amazing to me what has become acceptable to society just in my lifetime. Spending time in Proverbs will help you gain wisdom and gaining wisdom will help you identify immorality before you find yourself in deep trouble. That's really the message from this verse.
I recall a time many years ago when my friends were telling me about their situations and how surprised they were that these situations unfolded the way they did and so quickly. "It just sorta happened. I didn't want it to.. but it did... so what's a person to do? You just can't walk away from this kinda thing." Because of their inability to identify a situation as an extreme emergency, they lost their wife, their family, many of their friends and carried around a great deal of guilt for their actions. Gaining wisdom will help you see how these situations may play out before they run you over. When you see these situations for what they truly are you will not be enticed by them.
God loves us all just the way we are. He wants us to come to Him with our questions and concerns like we talk to our best friends. He has a better plan for our lives than we can ever imagine and He wants us to turn our lives over to Him so He can provide us with a life uncommon; a life that surpasses our wildest imagination. He knows what we want and His plan for our lives perfectly aligns to our purpose in this world.... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'd be interested in hearing from you as to what verse from Proverbs had an impact on you. If you would like to add anything, please post a message. I hope you're keeping up on your "Proverbs Challenge" and remember you gain wisdom the more you spend time in Proverbs.
The Shepherd
Return to The Proverbs Challenge
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