Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion. Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God. – Proverbs 30:8b-9 Our society is heavily tainted by the idea that more is better and newer is more valuable than older. It keeps us trapped, forever replacing the old and buying new. We are crippling ourselves with debt and destroying our relationships just to have the latest and greatest gizmo or gadget. Our appetite for newness have become so inflated we have lost the ability to discern…

“A fool vents all his anger, but a wise man holds it back.” – Proverbs 29:11 (BSB) We humans are all emotional creatures, some more than others. We can’t help but respond emotionally to certain stimuli. That’s not a bad thing. Some things are supposed to make us happy. Falling in love. A beautiful sunset. Some things are supposed to make us sad. We grieve when our loved ones die because we value their presence and we know we will miss them. Some things make us angry, and rightly so. Even God gets angry in the face of injustice. The key is to respond to events around us with the…

“He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.” – Proverbs 28:13 Some people tend to think of belief in Jesus as the ultimate self-help solution – good for fixing all those little annoyances that are keeping us from our best life. Through him we are saved from a life of ordinariness and mediocrity and elevated into a happier, more perfect experience of life on this earthly sphere. I suppose you could make an argument that there is truth in there somewhere, but when you dig it out and examine it, that’s a pretty poor description of what salvation really is. The…

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17 When I read this verse, I picture a blacksmith working in his forge, practicing his craft to produce useful and clever things like knives, tools, and cooking utensils. Of course, that is just the beginning of the story. The action described in this verse happens later, after the tools have been dulled and damaged through use. Then, they are in need of sharpening – a painful and violent process. To sharpen a tool, you expose it to a stronger tool that knocks off the rough edges and smooths out the chipped and dented surfaces. If tools could speak,…

“As a door turns on its hinges, so the slacker turns on his bed.” – Proverbs 26:14 I have to say, I just love the visual presented by this proverb. The slacker turns on his bed the way a door turns on its hinges. Leave it to Proverbs to find the perfect figure of speech to describe a lazy person! I am a side sleeper, so on those occasions when I have trouble sleeping, I can feel just like a door turning back and forth. Am I a slacker? Sometimes I can be, although I prefer to think of myself as a procrastinator. That makes it sound like I am…

“If you find honey, eat just what you need, lest you have too much and vomit it up.” – Proverbs 25:16 The book of Proverbs is nothing but practical. Eating sweets until you vomit doesn’t seem to be a temptation that most grownups experience on a daily basis. At least I don’t think anybody I know is tempted that way. I have known people, though, who would drink alcoholic beverages until they vomited. It doesn’t seem like a very pleasant experience to me, but there are folks who participate in this at least on a weekly basis. I don’t get it. But I was able to think of an area…

“For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.” – Proverbs 24:16 (BSB) What makes a man get up after he falls? What makes a man get up seven times after he falls seven times? It takes faith to continue in the face of repeated failure. It’s faith that tells us the next time could be better. The next time could be the time we succeed. It’s worth continuing. It’s worth persevering even though things are difficult right now. The wicked stumble and can’t be bothered getting back up. They blame others for their failures. They blame God. They…

“A good name is more desirable than great riches; favor is better than silver and gold.” – Proverbs 22:1 (BSB) This proverb speaks quite plainly of the value of a good reputation. But don’t think for a moment that it refers to the necessity of hiring a good publicist or spin doctor to manage the way that others perceive you. Nope. It refers to the importance of an impeccable life, lived publicly and privately in accordance with the highest values. It’s said that “you are who you are when no one is watching.” This is the very definition of integrity. Integrity contains not only the idea of moral strength, but…

“The plans of the diligent bring plenty, as surely as haste leads to poverty.” – Proverbs 21:5 (BSB) What are you planning? We’ve all heard the old adage, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Is that what the writer is really getting at here? Plans are good. They are a terrific use of our God-given imagination. We envision for ourselves what a better future could look like. What does that mean for you? How would you define a better future for your life? What steps can you take to make your future better? These are all great things to ponder. But dreaming only goes so far. The…