Consequences

Reading: Proverbs 7-9; Romans 9

11 Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life. 12 If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer. (Proverbs 9:11-12 NLT) Wisdom and Folly both keep popping up through the book of Proverbs. The writers of the proverbs, Solomon mostly, but a few others as well, pictured Wisdom and Folly as two women, one who would lead a person to life and blessing, and the other to death and destruction. Having wisdom, being wise, is not merely knowing the right thing to do or the best course of action to take, but actually doing it! We can learn the lessons of the blessings of wisdom from Solomon’s words, but we learn the lessons of the consequences of foolishness from his actions. It’s not what you know, it’s what you do with what you know! Wisdom or foolishness informs our thought processes. Our thought processes lead to our choices: our choices to say or not say – to do or not do. Our choices have consequences because our words and our actions that result from those choices have consequences. My choices and the actions they produce will make my days more productive and add years to my life if they are wise choices. If I choose wisely, and act accordingly, I will reap a harvest of blessing. Otherwise I’ll pay the price. Consequences! Prayer: Father, I’m thinking about Solomon, who asked you for wisdom, received wisdom, then made foolish choices about women and worship. Please grant me wisdom, and also the discipline, to make my choices wisely and live them faithfully. Protect me from my own foolishness. And thank you, Father, for mercy and for second chances!

5 O God, you know how foolish I am; my sins cannot be hidden from you. 6 Don’t let those who trust in you stumble because of me, O sovereign Lord Almighty. Don’t let me cause them to be humiliated, O God of Israel. (Psalm 69:5-6 NLT)