Proverbs 20

Once again we see in this chapter of Proverbs an explosion of practical, life applicable, and wise words from God.

Allow me to share some verses that have impacted my life as a child of God.

Bible Passage: Proverbs 20

v 4: The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing. (ESV)

v 13 Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread. (ESV)

The verses above tell us a fact of life, ‘we have to work for our own livelihood’.

Laziness can cause poverty and even disrespect from fellow man.

We tend not to treasure things that come easily to us, for instance money. Some people had inherited mountains of wealth from their parents or grand parents, but very often these people don’t know how to treasure them and may even squander away these wealth that had fallen onto their laps.

But the money that we have earned by our own hands tends to be used more wisely; sometimes we may even be stingy on our spending, because we know how hard it is to earn a living.

I’ve actually come across many rich misers.

But having mentioned the above, we as the children of God are but pilgrims on earth, so our focus should not be on gaining riches of this world.

As long as we don’t be lazy but to earn our own living, so that we are able to sustain our life for God’s use.

Therefore, the above verses can also remind and caution us not to be lazy spiritually too. For if we are lazy to pray, it is as bad as lazy to breath in air; and if we are lazy to read the Bible, it is as bad as not feeding our souls with spiritual bread.

We maybe able to endure physical poverty, but can we handle spiritual poverty?

v 6: Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man? (NKJV)

I believe everyone can agree with me that there is pride in every single human on earth. But this pride varies in levels or in other words, in seriousness.

Very few people would want to think of themselves as no good, for the pride in us has cause us to be in a denial mode to whatever shortcomings we may have, unless one has learnt and imitated the humility of Christ fully that he could realize his shortcomings and to repent.

So, I read the above verse as a warning to myself, for I am in Christ Jesus must, therefore I have to be faithful and true, both to God and to fellow man, not only in words but in deeds.

It is truly futile to say we are good out of pride and in denial of our shortcomings, for in so doing, not only we have become detestable in the eyes of man, but also in God’s All Knowing Eyes that see the hearts of all man.

We can’t hide or deny our unfaithfulness towards man or God for long, for our actions will give us away.

As the above verse suggests, it seems that to be faithful is a bit difficult to achieve, but we still have to put in our effort, for Jesus not only wants us to be faithful, He wants us to be perfect!

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48 (ESV)

We all know that achieving perfection in this life is near impossibility, but we still have to strive to do our utmost.

As long as we are treading on the path towards perfection, God will be pleased and He will surely lead us along. Likewise as long as we put in our effort strive to be a faithful person, God will help us.

We have a faithful Heavenly Father, aren’t we His offspring supposed to be faithful just as He is?

v 10: Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD. (ESV)

v 23 Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.(ESV)

Many a times we lament that there is no fairness in the world. Well, this is true to a certain extant.

For we still have a God who is Righteous in all His ways, and definitely true fairness is found in Him.

It is often us who are not fair and dishonest towards the people around us, even to people whom we call brothers and sisters in Christ.

What is the thing that causes us to treat others unfairly, or to be dishonest in our dealings with matters in our lives?

It could be, our pride, selfishness, greed, jealousy, or even hatred that we have been harboring in our hearts.

Do we have one, or two, or even all of these in our hearts to take control over our actions in treating others?

To be unfair and dishonest is an abomination to the Lord. Man may not know our true intents, but can we escape the knowledge of God?

Again, being fair, honest and truthful has to be the trait of a true child of the True God in Heaven.

Guess I’ll end my sharing here and leave room for your comments and exhortations.

Shalom!