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.
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