Wisdom for the Day: Proverbs 1:32

Proverbs 1

32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm

Prov 1 is the prologue to the book of proverbs and it sets out wisdoms stall and warns against sinful folly. Being wise in our own ways when our ways lead us into folly is not really wise at all.

When you go to new places, and you get lost, whether its walking about a city streets or driving around looking for something – this is in the days before google maps.

When you trust in your own knowledge it tends to take you up a one way street or to a dead end.
We might think, I know the way to my destination, I’m a little bit lost just now and the way ahead is not that clear our pride tells us, carry on, you don’t want to admit that you are lost so you blunder on, often becoming more lost, until you come to your senses, admit you don’t know the way and ask for help.

I remember being on a ship in New York and some of the lads went ashore. They had been warned to avoid a certain area of the city where they would get mugged or robbed, they got lost coming back to the ship and ended up in this ghetto, the very place they were told to avoid, where they got bricks thrown at them and got chased for their lives. I went ashore the next day, wandered around the city centre and got a train back to the ship. I listened to the advice and to the experience of others and made it safely back to the ship.

The waywardness of the simple will kill them but whoever listens to me, who ever listens to wisdom will live in safety, will be at ease without fear of harm.

How do we want to live our lives? blocking out God’s wisdom will result in getting lost and running into danger, wandering around in circles, wasting our life. Letting God’s wisdom direct us, is like asking for directions from someone that knows the way. How do we ask, we simply read God’s word and we pray and we listen.

So may he lead you today and may you be at ease without fear and harm.