Instructions For Life

He who obeys instruction guards his life,but he who is contemptuous of his ways will die.

Proverbs 19:16 (NIV)

The Message puts it this way: “Keep the rules and keep your life; careless living kills.”

Maybe you’re one of those people who never reads the manuals. You open the box when you get a new appliance, plug it in, and keep pushing buttons until it kind of does what you want it to do. Don’t ask me how I know. Well, those of us who do that realize we never really get the most out of that appliance, and by the time we figure that out, we’ve lost the manual. But sometimes it’s more than annoying. It’s dangerous to neglect reading the instructions. I once wanted to strip old wax from my floor. I thought, I’ll mix bleach and ammonia. That will clean it really well. I hadn’t read on the label that that combination is toxic. An hour on my knees breathing the fumes sent me to the hospital with lung damage.

My story is a good illustration of how we can create toxic situations in our lives by not applying the sound, practical instruction of the Proverbs.

Let me share a string of proverbs that, like a string of pearls, when obeyed, will guard your life:

• A soft answer turns away wrath (15:1, NKJV).
• He who trusts in riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish (11:28, NKJV).
• An excellent wife is a crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones (12:4, NKJV).
• The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise (12:15, NKJV).
• Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil (3:7, NKJV).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

As you have read the Proverbs the last few months, are there a few that have really stood out? Have they pricked your heart, and yet you haven’t applied them? It’s been said, “To know and not to do is not to know at all.” In James 1:22, God speaks frankly to us: “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise you are only fooling yourselves.”

One Year Bible Reading

1 Chronicles 24:1–26:11; Romans 4:1-12; Psalm 13:1-6; Proverbs 19:15-16