Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Proverbs 3:5 (04/06/23)
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TITLE: Choose Your Guide | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
04/11/23 -
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Here we see two conflicting sources of information on which our daily, ongoing choices are made.
When choosing one, we inevitably discard the other.
Scripture is like the signage along the way that tells us “You Are Here” and where we are headed.
What may seem like relatively insignificant choices, are actually what determine the course of our Earthly lives, and impacts what will be our eternal experience.
Proverbs 3: 5 begins with a command (to trust) for advancing disciples to obey.
Obedience is what opens the door to blessings, whereas disobedience opens the door to discipline.
Obedience is not only the wise thing to do, but amounts to an overt expression of the love that the advancing disciple has for the Lord (1).
Trusting in the WRITTEN Word of God is equivalent to trusting in the LIVING Word of God (2).
Since their earliest interactions with the human race, Satan and or his intermediators, have disputed either what it was that God said, or its appropriate application (3).
Here in the Church Age, the ongoing battle between divine and diabolical forces continues.
The bone of contention is the information vs. the misinformation that the opposing forces promote.
No wonder that the Lord Jesus Christ made the deliverance from evil (misinformation) a part of an advancing disciple’s prayer life (4).
I use the phrase advancing disciples because it is they, who will make use of the enabling power, and have developed the spiritual discernment necessary, to accurately interpret and to apply, the Word of God (5).
In Part B of Proverbs 3: 5, we have the second command. That is, not to lean on our own understanding, aka human viewpoint.
In this instance, to lean means to depend on someone or something (other than God) for guidance and or support.
The personal pronoun “own” refers to anyone or anything (other than God) that we, as individuals, go to, when seeking guidance or support.
It is at this point that the battle between accurate doctrine that we (should) have stored in our edified soul structure, and the misinformation that comes from sources other than God.
Note that one can not apply any knowledge that he or she does not possess (6).
The guidance center of our soul structure is like a computer’s memory bank. It is only as reliable as the data that is fed into it.
“… the (negative) things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man (Matt. 15: 18 NASB parenthesis mine).”
One of the greatest inhibitors to our forward spiritual progress is listening to the voice of our feelings.
Many things, both good and bad, contribute to how we feel at any given time.
Secular counseling usually begins with how one feels. The world will advise us to follow our heart.
But Scripture warns that our heart can be the most deceitful source of guidance out there.
With a little diabolical input, it was Eve's feelings that the devil used to deceive her.
Being deceived, she felt that by eating of the forbidden fruit, things would improve for she and Adam (7).
Even when things ARE improved by following our feelings, it can inevitably prove to be spiritually disastrous (8).
Often times, doing what Scripture calls for, as opposed to doing what the many other conflicting source of guidance would have us do, is not easy.
Divine guidance is not what comes to us naturally.
Fallen Man, by nature, is hostile towards God and the things of God. Paul spoke of this ongoing, internal, battle within himself (and us) nearly thirty years after he was born again (9).
Fallen Man has an inherent bent towards engaging in evil (10).
Neither our fallen nature nor our bent towards evil goes away this side of Heaven.
In fact, pressure they put on the soul increases, keeping pace with whatever forward progress that an advancing disciple attempts to make.
A sheathed sword is harmless.
If you want an easier-going post salvation spiritual life, just put your Bible away and play Church instead (11). By posing no threat to his agenda, the devil will be content to leave you alone.
But by trusting in the Lord and brandishing the Eph. 6: 17 sword, you will prompt a diabolical response, and find yourself fighting the good fight (12).
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(1) John 14: 15 (2) Heb. 4:12/John 1: 1, 14 (3) Gen. 3: 1, 4 (4) Matt. 6: 13 (5) John 15: 5/James 1: 22 (6) Matt. 7: 24 – 27 (7) Gen. 3: 5, 6 (8) Mark 8: 36 (9) Romans 8: 7/Romans 7: 19 – 23 (10) Gen. 6: 5 (11) 2Tim. 3: 5 (12) 2Tim. 4: 7
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