Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Proverbs Challenge - Day 29 - and an old song

Someone asked about Proverbs 31. Good question. In many months you can read a Proverb a day and it works out just fine. But if you know the song ♪ ♫ Thirty days has September, April, June and November, But who needs to remember? My days belong to you. ♫ ♪ Then you know there are several months where you don't have enough days to get all the way through the book.



So... you have two options. Read chapter 31 on the 20th or read it on the 1st of the next month. (No. Just totally skipping it is not an option.) I'm going to blog about Proverbs 31 on July 1.

I read through this chapter several times in a couple of different translations. The verse that keeps standing out to me today is verse 7

7 The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor, The wicked does not understand such concern.

Poor people often don't have access to lawyers or other advocates. They can be taken advantage of by landlords or loan sharks or others. Sometimes they are poor from their own bad choices in life. Sometimes they are poor because of their upbringing or lack of education. But no matter how they got there, all through scripture we see that God is concerned for the poor and expects us to be also.

Other verses form Proverbs 29 to consider:



1 comment:

Phyllis Hobson said...

v. 11 - A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. (KJV)
v. 20 - Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (NASB)

This chapter went back to advising on actions and words. I suppose I gravitated toward these because of my tendency to just speak out at any time. I've gotten much, much better with that. However, I still have the habit of either telling my husband or a friend what I had wanted to say, or mulling it over in my brain.

Proverbs 23:7 says that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he..." and I need to realize (and practice) that for God to have control over every thought (2 Corinth. 10:5 says to bring captive EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ) I need to stop the thoughts as they invade my mind and have God replace them with His thoughts and His will. Only as I do that more, will Christ rule in my heart, and my speech and attitude will reflect that.