Yesterday we discovered that forgiving someone begins with your decision to surrender all rights to see justice done for the harm you suffered. It’s not an easy decision. Letting someone off your moral hook takes great wisdom, courage, and faith. You aren’t simply letting the matter drop; you are handing this person and your suffering over to God, trusting Him to do what is right.
Read MoreTag Archives: Proverbs
Surrender Your Rights
If we accept that resentment is poisonous to the soul and that God demands we dispose of it, the next question is obvious: How? How can we rid ourselves of this toxic attitude? Here’s where God’s Word comes to our rescue. First, we must do something within ourselves that is painful. We must surrender our right to pursue our own justice. This is the first of two steps in forgiving someone.
Read MorePoison to the Soul
I think Sir Francis Bacon had the right idea when he wrote, “Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. . . . Certainly, in taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing over it, he is superior, for it is a prince’s part to pardon.” If you have spent much time around someone who is eaten up with the desire for revenge . . .
Read MoreAddiction’s Downward Spiral
The problem of addiction goes beyond the abuse of alcohol or drugs. Addictions can develop out of virtually any substance or compulsive behavior. Very often people turn to certain behaviors because they find temporary relief from emotional pain. For example, a woman might soothe her troubled mind or cheer her depressed spirit with a shopping spree.
Read MoreA Deadly Substitute
Yesterday we discussed wine and strong drink. The chief concern of Solomon and the wise men was not the substance we call alcohol, but addiction to alcohol or the compulsion to drink it. The same concern exists for any other substance on which someone becomes dependent. Mind-altering drugs, of course, create similar problems, only quicker and more intensely.
Read MoreModeration versus Addiction
As we stated yesterday, substance abuse isn’t limited to sleazy back alleys; you can find addiction almost anywhere. The penthouse suite owned by the high roller, nice homes where small children play, efficient offices where business is regularly transacted, military barracks where boredom reigns, professional sports teams where competition is fierce and money is plentiful—the problem knows no economic or social boundaries.
Read MoreTimely Wisdom
I smile inside every time I hear someone say the Bible is irrelevant. Right away, I know that person is not at all acquainted with the pages of God’s Book. As one who has been an expositor of Scripture for more than five decades, I am still occasionally stunned at how up-to-date and on-target the Bible really is.
Read MoreIntelligent Fools
Before we close this week’s study, let’s revisit the sages’ fool. The English language defines a fool as someone who’s a little mischievous or who makes foolish decisions. Hebrew culture, however, took the term fool far more seriously. We have considered three different kinds of internal opposition to divine leading, opposition that the Hebrew language describes using no less than four terms.
Read MoreWillful Opposition
Of the three distinct types of rebel—those who oppose God’s internal leading and instruction—the simple-minded or naive bear the least moral guilt. Children are expected to be simple-minded, but they come to bear greater responsibility for their naiveté as they grow older. Still, their failure to learn from the school of hard knocks is less sinful than those who scoff at God’s direction.
Read MoreStupid Opposition
Hebrew culture recognized that not all opposition to God’s leading is the same. All opposition is foolishness, but the Old Testament sages diagnosed the different root causes of spiritual stupidity and addressed them accordingly. Yesterday, we examined simple foolishness, the opposition of those who simply have not learned, of people who have not been trained.
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