Friday, June 30, 2017

Stay Connected

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
STAY CONNECTED

Prov 19:27
27 Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
NIV

There is only one source for the correct instruction. Of course as we attend schools, colleges or universities we receive various forms of instruction which we endeavor to learn in order to achieve some area of success in life. However, there is only one source of words of knowledge and that is the Bible. The Hebrew word translated instruction implies correction, or disciple and even chastening. This can only come from God, from the Spirit who dwells within. Our heart, if left alone, to its own devices is bent toward that which does not please God, or evil. That is what God said. Of course when we were born again, he took that heart of stone and gave us a heart of flesh.

Ezek 11:17-21
17 "Therefore say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.' 18 "They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD."
NIV


God is the one who changes us from being bent toward evil to listening to his correction, his instruction. It is true we have to return to the land he gave us and remove any vile images and detestable idols. There is an action required in order to get an undivided heart. This is the instruction of the Lord. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we repent of those vile images and detestable idols, our life of self-serving, living in sin. We then listen to the instruction of God, and learn true knowledge. But there still is a war that wages within us, our heart may not truly be as undivided as it should. There is always images before us, there is always some form of idol before us to lure us, to tempt us to take a peek, even sometimes a stare. We are constantly being drawn away from the instruction of the Lord.  That is the main purpose of Satan, to draw us from the words of knowledge, to grab our attention toward other things. We have often seen scenes depicting a person with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, both seeking to influence the person. This is our life to a sense. We have to stay connected to the instruction, the correction, and the discipline of the Lord and learn from him the knowledge that leads to eternal life. Our heart desires God, but is also can desire the things of the world. How can that be?  We have to continually turn from the images of the world, the idols of the world. We have to constrain those desires of our heart. We might try to justify the desires of our heart in some way that seems we are following the instructions of God. The idea here is that we should make every effort not to be entrapped or ensnared by the ideologies of the world. The way to do that is stay connected to the instruction of the Lord.  

No comments: