Through the course of this month it's been my goal to read through the book of Proverbs. Mainly because I felt like I needed to be fed spiritually...specifically fed with wisdom. As I read through I highlighted various verses that I felt were especially insightful or just really applicable to me in this season of life.
Needless to say, there were many highlighted, but one stayed on my mind. I have heard this verse since I was a young child, but it struck me differently this time around and left me with a changed perspective...
which is the true reason I am sitting writing down my thoughts this day.
Proverbs 24:3-4 says, "By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding
it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures."
Lovely, no? That's kind of the way I've always looked at it...as beautiful words.
Who wouldn't want a house full of beautiful treasures.
And looking around I am surrounded physically by beautiful objects in my home.
However during this reading it pricked my heart in a different way,
a worrisome way.
What do I need to do to have those "rare and beautiful treasures" described by King Solomon? What kind of house am I building on a day to day basis? Where are my walls/boundaries being placed Monday through Saturday and dare I say on Sundays? What kind of knowledge am I filling my rooms with...the rooms of my house and the rooms of my heart.
My heart became heavier when it became clearer to me that maybe we are choosing not to seek out what defines us as Christians, what sets us apart, what can give us assurance of those rare and beautiful treasures, despite our own weaknesses.
Are we seeking the absolute truths of Jesus or a choosing to live in the gray, if you will.
A world where nothing can truly be considered absolutely right or absolutely wrong or good or bad, black or white, truth or untruth but everything is cloaked in a vail of uncertainty.
A hazy gray.
Even now, the majority of the world and sometimes the church would reel at using the symbols of black and white to describe much of anything.
As I think about Cade and Gracyn, I wonder if the road they will walk down
will be darker than mine.
Certainly it will.
Man would have us believe that absolutes in life are growing grayer and grayer as the years move ahead. I believe the world is teaching us and our children that we don't have to choose between God and the world, that we can embrace both.
Most of the world would likely consider this to be progress.
Will it one day be considered progress in the world of religion too?
To accept that holding absolutes is absolutely backward.
To seek to live in the gray so that we don't stand out, we aren't set apart, we can blend right in with the masses and still someone manage to fill our rooms with rare and beautiful treasures on our OWN?
Oh my goodness...what lies Satan is circulating. What a weapon he is wielding against us.
Yearning to draw near to God by seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ is what fundamentally defines us as Christians. Knowledge is nothing more than an accumulation of raw facts, but wisdom is the ability to see those facts as God sees them It is this wisdom, I believe, that teaches us how to not only survive, but thrive in this broken, broken world. God promises us that if we draw near to him, He will draw near to us, if we seek Him; then He will always reveal Himself to us.
He is Truth.
And there is nothing gray about Him.
3 comments:
That is so true. Thank you for those words Becky. It's hard to live in a world with absolutes, but that's what God calls us to do. He doesn't say it will be easy or fun, does he?
A great insight to God's word and how true the words are today just like they were over 2,000 years ago. Ironic, no, God has known man's hearts and how we would react for a very long time. He has given us choices bad and good. We do need God's wisdom. We have to strive every day to read His word to know how to live our every day lives.
I thought of this scripture...II Timothy 4:3-4
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
The devil is alive and well, trying to get us to turn our whole lives to him. We have to flee from him and turn to Christ always.
Love you bunches!
Mom
Becky Alaniz--I think you have another calling(among the many other talents that I know you have) I think you have been given the gift of writing!! Please write a women's devotional , fiction,non fiction--heck I don't care what form of writing you choose JUST WRITE!!!! (I'll read it and love it)! Humor me--just write what is in your precious heart. I can feel a best seller coming (Betcha a zillion dollars you WILL be published). Thanks for sharing this "food for thought" verse. Love Ya, Sandy :)
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