How Long?

Proverbs 1:22 (NASB) "How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?

Footnotes:

1. Proverbs 1:22 Lit simple ones
2. Proverbs 1:22 Or naivete

 

 

 

 

I believe these are questions everyone needs to answer within him/herself.  When are you going to get fed up with foolishness?  How long will you remain ignorant of the things of God?  There comes a time in your life when you realize that maturity doesn't have much to do with age.  There are as many old fools in the world as young.  The same is true of the "saints" (and I use that term very loosely).

 

There are people who have been born and raised up in the church, but yet insist on not following the commands of God.  They follow church etiquette, protocol, rules, and regulations, but completely miss the mark on the whole 'love your neighbor as yourself' train of thought consistent throughout the Bible.  We tear each other down, hate on each other's gifts, belittle each other, and backbite one another.  Where is the Christ in that?  How long will we be so simple-minded and selfish?  How long will we not join together in the unity of the body of Jesus Christ?  How long will we choose to remain ignorant of God's plan for our lives?

 

No one can answer these questions for you.  There has to come a time in your spiritual journey when YOU decide to put away childish things.  No one can force you to grow up.  This is a decision that only you can make.  You have to want to seek more of God, to know His will for you, and to learn more of Him.  We worship God through our relationship with Him in Christ Jesus.  We cannot worship God if we don't know Him.  If you aren't interested in knowing Him, why are you in church?  How long will you love being simple-minded?

 

 

Cross references:

1. Proverbs 1:22 : Prov 1:4, 32; 8:5; 9:4; 22:3
2. Proverbs 1:22 : Ps 1:1
3. Proverbs 1:22 : Prov 1:29; 5:12

Are You Facing a Midnight?

Acts 16:25-26 (NASB) But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

Sometimes life just gets dark.  Nothing seems to be going right.  Everything and everybody is against your success.  You feel hopeless, helpless, and desperate.  There is no way out.  There is no light at the end of your tunnel.  There is no dawn on your horizon.  Things are just bad.

You need to praise your way through.  Paul and Silas were facing a horrible situation in the passage selected above.  They were in jail for no good reason.  Christians at the time were persecuted and put to death for their beliefs, but they did not wallow in dispair.  What did they do?  They prayed and they sang songs of praise to God!  This is an excellent example of how to break through a midnight situation.  Pray and sing praises to God!!!

Your praise not only will free you, but "everyone's chains were unfastened"!  Your praise in the midst of your storm will probably encourage someone else to trust God through theirs.  Paul and Silas were given a miraculous opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ after they were freed from their bondage with prayer and praise.  You likewise have a miraculous opportunity to testify of the goodness of God with your breakthrough!  What breakthrough?  The one you're going to receive through your perpetual praise and continual prayer.  Your change just may happen in your attitude, or in your mind, or in your perseverance, or the circumstances around you, but it WILL happen.

Only believe!  All things are possible to them that believe.  When you are facing a midnight, remember Paul and Silas in jail, and how they made it over.  God has not changed; He will do the same thing for you.  Pray and praise God in advance for your deliverance!