“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...

The Lord Jesus Christ is the best friend you can ever have.

1. Jesus will always be with you
He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:4). No one else can say this to you. In every adversity, in life and in deat...

What are the qualities of a true friend? How can you be a better friend? Proverbs gives us a profile of a true friend.

1. A true friend is present
Do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Bette...

Proverbs gives us two ways to guard our friendships:

First, by being considerate
The easiest way to kill a good friendship is to become demanding. Here is a person who becomes friends with his neighbour, but then he ove...

The people with whom you are closest will have the greatest influence in your life. The character of the friends you choose will rub off on you. And the deeper a friendship becomes, the more like your friend you will become. Friendship can bring y...

In Proverbs we are looking at what it means to follow the way of wisdom in five areas: friends, family, words, work, and wealth. Today, we begin by looking at friendship.

“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire” (18:1). That is, he i...

To “fear the Lord” means to love Him so much that His frown would be your greatest dread and His smile would be your greatest delight.

There is a fear that love removes, and there is a fear that love brings.

The f...

What is your first reaction to “the fear of the LORD”? If you have endured a religion based on fear, you may say, “I had enough of that when I was young; I don’t want anything to do with it now.”

If that is what you feel, look at the good t...

Here are three things that wisdom brings to us:

1. Long life
Long life is in her right hand (3:16). If you eat a proper diet, you will enjoy better health than if you live on junk food. That doesn’t guarantee ...

Proverbs describes what it looks like to follow Jesus Christ. It lays out the life to which wisdom calls us, the life of a disciple of Jesus.

We are going to look at what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to follow the way of wisdom ...

In Proverbs 8, wisdom speaks, but whose voice is this? The answer is found in the New Testament.

Jesus is described as the wisdom of God: “You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 1:30). “Christ, in whom are hidden...