Read through Proverbs in 31 days, Today’s reading is entitled “God Gives Sight To The Poor and Oppressed”
Read Proverbs 29 – How often have you felt poor and oppressed? Do descriptions in scripture such as this generally refer to feelings? What you feel and believe can change from day to day – one day you will believe things could never get worse while the next day things change to create a belief that you are “on top of the world.” God’s Wisdom goes well beyond feelings and beliefs based on those feelings. Since we are considering feelings, let’s look at a feeling and belief that can control all others – belief in God’s power and presence in your life. Accepting Christ can help you to overcome the roller coaster of feelings that can change hour by hour. Spiritually speaking, a person wallowing without God is experiencing the greatest oppression and depression.
What do the wise words of Proverbs have to say about this?
- A just king who loves wisdom brings joy to his father. Evil people will lay a trap for their friends while the just will escape those traps.
- The Lord cares for both the righteous and the foolish, those who vent their anger and the people who will manage it.
- God ignores the prayers of those who refuse to acknowledge Him. The evil person will fall into his own trap, while the knowledgeable will receive great things.
- Hidden sins will keep you separated from prosperity, in order to receive mercy you must confess them.
- The trustworthy, hard worker will have plenty of food and rich rewards but the fantasy-chaser will follow them into troubles.
Pray for wisdom. How many times have you heard this advice from pastors and other mentors? Wisdom can provide spiritual insight and guidance when you need it most. One point pulled from Proverbs 29 says that someone who is a just person will escape the traps laid by the evil ones. God’s guidance will steer your path around the obstacles placed by satan along the road of life. Always be in prayer that your leadership of others will carry them toward God’s ways.
Let’s look at another “contradiction” that some may be so glad to point out – the Lord cares for all yet He ignores the prayers of those who refuse to acknowledge Him. How is this a contradiction, though? Do those who refuse His existence still expect to receive His peace and contentment? God loves all sinners and saints, continuing to call the lost until a time that only He knows. If He loves all, why does he ignore the prayers of the lost? There have been discussions about this along with disagreements, but you have to study, understand and draw your own conclusions – the only prayer from the lost that reaches God’s ear is “forgive me for I have sinned …” Yes, God loves everyone and hears all prayers of those who are praying in His Will. Now we look at hidden sins – is there really such a thing? God is omniscient; he knows everything going on in your mind. Because of this, you can’t really hide sin from Him. Keeping that in mind, sins certainly become much easier to deal with after you have brought them to the forefront of your mind and asked forgiveness. Consider it this way, in order to stay out of trouble you lied to the boss about something. The fear of slipping up and forgetting what was told keeps your mind occupied and creates many stressful times. These stresses prevent focus on important things that can help you to grow in the job, hence you are separated from prosperity. As a popular children’s movie indicated, the fib keeps on growing until it takes over (Veggie Tales, 1997 – Fib From Outer Space).
