January 15 – Guarded Lives (Proverbs 4:20-27)

“Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.”(Proverbs 4:21-22)

IN WORD:
The godly life is not lived passively. It is not random, and it is not a life of wandering. Those who wait for God’s Word to change them will only find it so doing when they actively feed themselves with it. Those who expect the sermons they hear and the words they read to make them godly will be entirely frustrated unless they are diligent in meditating on the truth and applying it to their lives. Simply sitting in a pew week after week will do nothing radical in a believer’s life. Wisdom is not gained by passive absorption or osmosis. It must be consumed and savored. It must become the focal point of our thinking.
Those who hear words of wisdom and do not apply them are like the receivers of the seed in Jesus’ parable of the 4 soils (Matthew 13:20-22). They hear the truth. They understand it. They even agree with it. But it has no benefit for them. It isn’t real faith. James concurs (James 1:22-24): Hearing, understanding, and agreeing without application is a self-deceptive dynamic. It appears to be faith, but it effects no change in the life of the hearer. Something more is needed — diligence, for example. And action. God and His truth are to be treasured more than any other affection of our heart.

IN DEED:
Where do your affections lie? Do you hear the truth and then turn your heart to other things? We will not retain what we’ve heard or read unless we dwell on it for a while, turning it over in our minds and locking it within our hearts. We will not be changed and we will not grow by passive hearing. We must set our affections on God’s wisdom, act on it, and beat away any philosophical or material rivals. The promise for doing that is amazing: life & health. Truth & righteousness are powerful; they are the substance of our lives.

“One gem from the ocean [the Bible] is worth all the pebbles from earthly streams.” -Robert Murray M’Cheyne-