Sunday Message- stumbling towards wisdom

This week, I have embarked on applying two things I learned from David Jeremiah and Turning Point.  One was the concept that to gain wisdom as God defines it, I need to seek it out.  He suggests a plan in which one reads every day one chapter of Proverbs and 5 Psalms every day.  I am trying to do that, and do it prayerfully and carefully.  The second thing is a helpful way OF accomplishing this.  He suggests four attitudes to bring to this study:

Humble- don't come to God already bringing YOUR version of wisdom- listen to God for HIS version.  I have already hit that in Psalms:

Psa 4:4  Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah 

That word "angry" is a curious case itself, and we will come up against it again at a later date.

Hungry- Be eager, hungry, for what God has to share with you.

Hearing- obviously, you have to listen.  Not so obvious: are you listening, or trying to mold what you read into your pre-conceived notions (more on this Wednesday)?

and Heeding-  God won't give you wisdom UNLESS you are being obedient to what you read!  This is my big failure, and again a thing for another discussion.

So with these tools in place, I have been making my slow way through Proverbs and Psalms.  Today, I wanted to give you one example of what I have found, and how it ties to the bigger picture.  Let me start with the ESV on this verse:

Pro 3:27  Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. 

Naturally, to one with my "pre-conceived notions" (we'll go with PCNs henceforth), I looked at that and immediately asked, "Who is good "due" to?"  I didn't realize that the question was much like Peter's asking Jesus, "How many times shall I forgive my brother? Seven?"  To show you how I figured that one out, let me bring up the YLT translation:

Pro 3:27  Withhold not good from its owners, When thy hand is toward God to do it . 

"From its OWNERS"?  What was going on here?  Now I read this at work, so I wasn't exactly able to flip to the Strong's numbers and work out the translations (such as I do).  Had I, I would have found that the word translated 'due' or 'owner' meant 'part of (belonging to) a master/husband/owner'.  Which really wouldn't have helped me any more that the YLT did.

So I pondered in my heart.  Not on my bed, but at my machine.

And as I did, I realized what God was saying.  Think about this verse:

Luk 17:10  So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'" 

We have a tendancy to make ourselves "feel good" in doing some good deed.  And really, there's nothing wrong with that so far as it goes, because God loves a cheerful giver.  BUT... we have to be careful about how hard the back gets patted.  We see our good deeds as things we pass out as we choose, to "get points" in heaven.  But, GOD sees them as things we OWE to those we do them to.  The guy in China we bought a Bible for?  That was HIS Bible, we HAD to give it to him.  The Guy who got a meal at the soup kitchen because of our contribution?  That was HIS meal, it was our JOB to give it to him.  See what I mean?  God doesn't see it as giving someone from our bounty, He sees it as giving them what BELONGS to them.

Do we still "get the points"? Sure, but it is the ATTITUDE that makes the difference.  And if that doesn't change our attitude in doing, then we aren't getting it.

And bear with me, I am trying to learn that as we speak!

I think this ties in with a lot of what I am learning lately.  One quote Jeremiah made the other day- and I may have shared it already, is, "God doesn't give us strength to fight, He gives us strength to STAND."  Just like Jehoshaphat getting the Army of Israel all armored up in 2 Kings and then having them stand and not move while the Lord defeated their enemies, I have had to realize that the Armor of God is not an offensive weapon for us, but for God- and for us it is DEFENSIVE.  We need to take each piece and say, "Lord, you have clothed me in this, now YOU win the battle."  

It is literally astounding to me to learn how much of God's will is counter-intuitive to man.