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Proverbs 26:12-19 – Careful Thought

Verse 12 – It’s so easy to lie to ourselves – to think we are wiser and more Godly than we really are. We need to pray that God will keep us from deluding ourselves. That He will pull down our pride and imagined wisdom. That He will take the blindness from our eyes, so we will know who we really are, and that we will be clothed in humility from head to toe.

Verses 13-16 – This isn’t just a picture of a lazy man, it is a picture of a man lazy about spiritual things. He finds it too hard to be a Christian – too much commitment, too much time, too much effort. He has loads of excuses and reasons to put off getting serious about Christ. He tries to walk a middle ground because he has a guilty conscience, but he just doesn’t want to go forward in Christ. All he wants to do is maintain the status quo, and he thinks himself the better man for doing so – not too extreme. Does this describe you? Pray that you will not be lazy in the things of God.

Verse 17 – If we want to honour God in our Christian life, we need to take time at every step for prayer, and for acting wisely. Otherwise, we’ll rush ahead to trouble. Even with the best of intentions, we often meddle in things that are not our concern. We are too quick to judge others and pick the worst moments possible for speaking to someone about what they’ve done. We need to turn the arguments and quarrels of daily life over to God in prayer and study His Word for wisdom in what we should do.

Verses 18-19 – Thoughtlessness makes other people miserable. But the thoughtless man or woman seldom realises this. They have no evil intentions, but in their joking and speech they are needlessly hurting others. Again and again, we need to think before we speak.

Questions

  1. How can we see ourselves as we really are?
  2. What is the cure for laziness in the things of God?
  3. How should we deal with every situation that comes our way?

Prayer Points

  1. Pray that we would think and pray before we act.
  2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
  3. Pray for family matters.