There are two ways to lose the path of wisdom. One is to forget the means that God uses. The other is to forget that it is God who uses the means.

Isaiah said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil” (Isa. 38:21). But God s...

What would you think of a person who said, “God will give strength to my body, so there is no need for me to eat”? Or, “God will keep me warm, so there is no need for me to wear clothing”?

God gives strength to your body by means of the fo...

This gives us a clue about Hezekiah’s illness. There was a boil, evidence of an infection raging in his body. And Isaiah told the king to apply a dressing on the infected area, using a cake of figs.

Hezekiah did not have the blessing of mo...

Let’s look at the happy ending of Hezekiah’s story. We will see what God did and how He did it. What we find in these verses speaks clearly to any crisis we may face today.

Hezekiah is at the point of death. So, he prays to the Lord, and G...

Maybe you will say today, “I have not sought God in prayer, and I don’t have a clear conscience. I can’t say that I have walked before God in faithfulness. I have not served Him with my whole heart. I have not done what is good in His sight. So ho...

When Hezekiah faced this unexpected crisis, the first thing he did was to pray, and the second thing he did was seek to live with a clear conscience. Notice what happened next: “Hezekiah wept bitterly” (38:3).

Why did he weep bitterly? Why...

Hezekiah’s first response to the crisis was to seek the face of God in prayer. His second response was to seek to live with a clear conscience.

Look again at Hezekiah’s prayer. Is he holding up his faithfulness as leverage in his prayer? So...

How did Hezekiah respond to this unexpected crisis? How will you respond in a crisis?

The first thing Hezekiah did was to seek the face of God in prayer. When Isaiah comes with grim news, Hezekiah turns to the wall and prays. There were any...

We are looking at the story of a godly king. And yet of this man we read that he became sick and was near death.

This was a painful affliction. And it happened at the worst possible time. The king and all of God’s people were suddenly plun...

Hezekiah was one of the best kings God’s people ever had. He was the son of Ahaz, who was one of the worst (16:1–4; 18:1). This reminds us that God can redeem people from the worst background and move their lives in a totally different direction.<...

“Those days” is a reference to a time when God’s people were under attack. The king of Assyria had invaded the Promised Land. He began in the north, where 10 tribes had broken away from the line of David. The northern kingdom was overwhelmed, and ...

This seems counterintuitive. Surely if I give freely, I will have less. How does this principle work out in practice?

Think about farming. The farmer has a sack of seed. What does he do? He scatters it freely. Then, when harvest com...

“Honour” means “give weight to.” Give weight to the Lord with your wealth. You do this by laying aside a portion of all that God has given you and giving it back to Him.

What should you put aside?
“The firstfruits of al...

Proverbs warns us about four temptations that will come with money.

1. The temptation to control
The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it (11:26). God has bl...

If money is a blessing, how can it also be a danger? Because money is a power. It lures us as a rival god and then makes increasing demands. It will seek to take control of your life. Money is a great servant, but it is not a good master.

...

Solomon affirms the reward of hard work. But then he goes on to say that the blessing of the Lord makes one rich. So, which is it, Solomon? Does it depend on our hard work, or does it depend on the Lord?

If you put these two statements toge...

If we want to have the joy that Jesus had, we need to live like Jesus lived. This was His approach to the work the Father gave Him to do:

Jesus began early
The sluggard was slow to start but at the age of twelve, Jesus...

Author and professor Rebecca DeYoung describes laziness or sloth as “resistance to the demands of love.” Then she talks about what can all too easily happen in a marriage—a husband and wife get into an argument, and they retreat to different parts...

Picture a wise man walking in the countryside. First, he goes past a field of ripening corn. Then he goes past a vineyard with clusters of grapes on the vine. Then he goes past a little vegetable garden. It’s going to be a good harvest, h...

Here is how Proverbs describes the sluggard, or the unproductive person:

He is slow to start
The sluggard does not plough in the autumn (20:4). This draws attention to the long-term effects of putting off the ...

We are looking today at the theme of work, or more precisely, its opposite.

The book of Proverbs introduces us to a tragic character whose life ends in ruin. The name of this character is the sluggard. He is referred to 14 times.</p...

Your words will be a blessing when you have:

An open ear
Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger (Jas. 1:19). Having an open ear means listening to the words of others. It also means lis...

The Proverbs encourage us to speak in certain ways, and to avoid speaking in other ways. Let’s frame four prayers from the book of Proverbs, asking for God’s help with our words.

Lord, help me to speak with restraint</stron...

What you say comes out of you, but it also goes down inside you. It goes to the stomach (18:20). Your own cursing will go deep down into your own soul. They are bitter fruits, and they will make your soul sick. You will eat your own words.

...

We have looked at the way of wisdom in relation to friends and family, and today we come to wisdom in our words. There are more proverbs on what we say than on any other subject. The tongue is the means by which we bring the greatest help or harm ...

The only commands that are life-giving are the words and commands of God. But here is a father who has made God’s words his own: “My teaching. My words. My commandments.” What he commends to his son is what he pursues hi...

Remember that the Proverbs are not promises. Still, this is a stunning statement: Your influence in the lives of your children goes deeper than you may think. It will still be with them, even when they are old!

The thief on the cross lived...

You might be surprised to hear that the largest number of proverbs relating to family life are addressed to parents and to children. Let’s begin with God’s wisdom for children.

Always seek to bring joy to your parents
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Your spouse is a gift from the Lord. These are the words of Solomon to his son Rehoboam, and this wise father commends marriage to his son as a good thing. Marriage is a good gift from the Lord.

We live in a culture that flaunts freedom. “W...

If you have a good relationship with your brother or sister, cherish it and guard it, because Proverbs reminds us that close relationships are vulnerable to deep wounds that don’t heal easily. “A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong c...