Day 2487 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Proverbs 1:7 NIV

Well, there you have it! We've been talking for a couple of days about why reading the Bible and even a few other aspects of our faith aren't more popular or common, even among those who consider themselves religious. But when I started Proverbs last night this verse just seemed to sum it all up perfectly. We've learned to respect the wrong things for the wrong reasons. And sadly we've found comfort along the paths of foolishness.

The Bible is truth. It confronts the lies that we've believed and forces us to address the shortcomings within our own hearts, minds, and lives. And nobody who is used to living according to the ways of the world wants anything to do with that. People don’t want to learn. They don’t want to have to change. They don’t want to have to consider the possibly that they’ve messed up and made mistakes. And folks definitely don’t want to face the chance that they’re just plain wrong. This world doesn’t want any part of anything that requires change, humility, or admitting our imperfections.

That's where we gone wrong. We've learned to be more afraid of what makes us uncomfortable than the power of God. We've chosen to worry about what we want or what the world says is important instead of who God calls us to be. We've set our sights on our selfish and petty desires rather than God's plans and purposes for our lives. We've settled for the paths of foolishness because they're the ones that lead to comfort and this simplistic idea of freedom that sin has sold us.

Friends, do we want to keep living as fools or do we want something better for ourselves? Make no mistake, we're free to keep on doing as we've done. God won't force us to read His word. He won't demand our prayers or our time or our attention. He won't make our choices for us because if He did then it wouldn’t be personal to us. But He gives us the opportunity to realize that our past choices, while comfortable and easy, weren't the best choices after all. And that realization is what opens the door to wisdom and growth and every other good thing.

This world and the vast majority of people in it will continue to settle for being foolish and living apart from God. His way requires too much work. His paths demand our humility. His ways ask us to surrender ours with the faith that what He has for us really is better than anything we'd ever find on our own. A life of faith isn't easy and so it will never be common or popular in a place that only desires things that make us feel good and give us instant gratification.

Wisdom is a rare thing in this place because as this verse tells us, wisdom begins when we learn to fear the Lord. We have to learn to respect Him above anything and everything else. We have to be willing to learn continually and that requires a kind of humility that helps us see that we don't know everything. And that's arguably the biggest stumbling block that people struggle with in our faith. God's ways really do against everything our world stands for and believes in. And many just can’t let go of the lies that they’ve accepted as truth for so long.

The Bible opens our eyes to every truth that we’ve tried to avoid. It opens our hearts to the realization that we’re more wrong than we ever wanted to admit. A life of faith requires us to let go and surrender our hopes and dreams to His plans and promises. Following Christ will lead us away from everything we’ve known. And while that may not give us the same comfort as staying the same, it’s the only path that actually leads to everything we could hope to find, and so much more.

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