Read Proverbs 27:7

Read Proverbs 27:7  Have you ever been hungry?  I mean really hungry?  May be you didn't like what was for breakfast and you didn't eat very much.  Then you were outside playing hard; running and doing things.  Then suddenly, you realized that your stomach was growling and you were really hungry.  When you came into the house for lunch, it didn't matter what was on the table, you were ready to eat!  It could be that your mother had a lunch that you didn't usually like very well.  But on this day, you were hungry; you were ready to eat anything!  You might have even have had seconds.  But you finally got full.  You pushed back from the table and groaned rubbing your full belly.  Then your mother brings out your favorite dessert.  But, you are so full that you can't even take a bite.  You look at that sweet dessert, but you just can't even take a little nibble.  That is what our verse is talking about.  Often in our lives, we are going along just fine.  Things are good and we are doing alright. It is like we are spiritually full.  We don't seem to need God.  But then something happens.  Things suddenly go wrong.  We get into mischief and suddenly we realize that we need God.  Our soul is hungry.  We are in trouble and we cry out to God in prayer.  We remember that we have left God out of our lives.  I believe that God lets bad things happen to us so that we will remember that we need Him.  Because we really do!   We really need God all of the time.  It is just that some of the time we don't realize that we need God.  We become proud and independent.  Just like our verse, we are so full that we don't even want honey.  We don't even realize that we need God.  I pray that God will give us a spiritual hunger for Him.  I pray that we will realize that we need God every day.  I want to love God more and more every day, don't you?

Read Proverbs 27:5 & 6

Read Proverbs 27:5 & 6  These verses tell us that our friends will be honest with us.  If we talk too much, we want our friends to tell us that we am talking too much, so that we can stop rattling on and on.  We may get mad at them for saying that we talk too much, but we will get over it.  We want the truth, not just what we want to hear from our friend.  The last of verse six says that the enemy is deceitful.  An enemy will say, "Oh no, you aren't talking too much.  I like to hear you talk.  Go ahead, talk some more!"  But then he will tell others how that we talk too much, and he will laugh at us behind our backs.  But a true friend will be honest and will tell us the truth.  That is what Solomon calls the wounds of a friend.  We need honest friends, not back-stabbing enemies.

Read Proverbs 27:1

Read Proverbs 27:1  What are you going to do tomorrow?  Do your school work?  But, that is just what you think that you are going to do.  Our verse says that we may plan what we are going to do tomorrow, but we don't really know what we are going to do tomorrow.  We may plan to do schoolwork, but a tornado may come.  We may be blown into the next state tomorrow!  Well, I certainly hope not.  A friend may call you tomorrow and tell you that they are in the hospital and we may decide to go to visit them.  Our plans may change.  The truth is that we don't know what we will do tomorrow.  We only know what we plan to do tomorrow.  But Who knows exactly what is going to happen tomorrow?  God does.  Isn't it good that we can trust in a loving heavenly Father?  He knows what He will do with us tomorrow.  And He will be with us, no matter what it is.

Read Proverbw 26:27

Read Proverbs 26:27  The verse for today gives two examples of people who do mischief that comes back on themselves.  When you do naughty things, people are naughty back to you.  When you are bad, you get punished for the bad things that you have done.  Our first example is of someone who digs a pit and covers it over with camouflaged sticks and grass in order to trap someone else as they innocently walk by.  But the Bible says that they themselves will forget and fall into the pit that they have dug!  When my friend, Brother Ron, was in high school, he and another friend wanted to do something funny the night before the last day of school.  So they got some cans of gasoline, sneaked onto the football field at night and poured the gasoline out in the grass in the shape of the year, 1984.  But when they got a match out to burn the 1984 in the grass, it was too dark and they had forgotten where the shapes of the numbers were.  When they lit the match and threw it down into the grass, the fire flamed up - all around them!  They were in the middle of the fire!  They had to jump over the fire to get out to safety.  What a dumb trick.  Almost as dumb as falling into a pit that you had dug yourself, or rolling a rock that rolled back onto yourself.  Things have a way of coming back to us - bad things that we do or good things that we do.

Read Proverbs 26:23

Read Proverbs 26:23  Solomon uses a very clear word picture in our verse for today.  Burning lips mean someone who talks about someone else.  A talebearer or a contentious person has burning lips.  And a wicked heart goes right along with the burning lips.  So what are these two evil things like?  Solomon says that they are like a piece of a pot that has been shattered.  And then it is covered with the nasty scrapings off of the top of a pot of molten silver.  When silver is heated up until it is a hot liquid, the impurities float up to the top.  Then the scum is scraped off with something - here it is a piece of a broken pot.  The scum cools and turns back to a solid.  The potsherd is useless and the silver scum that is stuck onto it is useless too.  What a nasty thing.  That is how nasty that God sees gossiping lips and a wicked heart.  God thinks that both of them are as nasty as the worthless piece from a broken pot that has silver scum stuck on it.  I want God to be pleased with me, don't you?  Don't have problem lips or a wicked heart.  Be pleasing to the Lord!

Read Proverbs 26:21

Read Proverbs 26:21  Yesterday that we discussed verses 20 and 22.   These verses seem to go together because they talk about a talebearer.  But did you notice that we left out verse 21?  Verse 21 is a little different  from the other two verses.  Verse 21 talks about a contentious person.  A contentious person is a trouble maker.  Have you noticed that it takes two people to quarrel?  One person can't argue with himself.  He must have someone else to fuss with.  But what happens when one person wants to fight, but the other person doesn't want to fight?  Well, there isn't a fight.  If one person is peace-loving, there will not be a problem.  The problem comes when a contentious person starts something.  If the other person is not careful, the fight is on!  Contentious people like to cause trouble.  They like to get someone mad.  They like to stir up trouble.  Solomon uses the example of a fire.  If you take away the wood from the fire, what happens?  Of course, the fire goes out.  The contentious person is like the wood; they like to keep the trouble burning.  They will pick at you and get under your skin and push your hot buttons and get you mad.  That is what they want.  But the way to end trouble is just not to fight at all.  Don't let the troublemaker get to you.  Just stay calm and be nice.  Soon they will be frustrated and go away and take their trouble with them.  Their fire has gone out.  Good for you!

Read Proverbs 20 & 22

Read Proverbs 26:20 & 22  Did you know that what you say can really hurt someone?  It is true, we shouldn't let words hurt us, but they do.  Have you ever had someone say something that really hurt your feelings?  Not only were your feelings hurt, but you were mad at them for saying what they said.  But have you ever been the one who gossiped and hurt someone else?  Our second verse reminds us that the rude words that we might say to someone about someone else may eventually get around to the person that we were talking about.  And when they do, our friend will be hurt and we will be embarrassed.  But our first verse tells us how to avoid being embarrassed about what we have said.  In order to be a talebearer, there must be three people: one person who we are talking about, and another person to whom we are talking to.  The third person is us.  Our first verse reminds us that if we take away the wood from a fire, it will go out.  Wood in a fire burns up.  In order to keep the fire going, we have to keep putting wood on the fire.  So here is the key to stop talebearing: when someone brings a bit of gossip to you about someone else, just stop them and don't listen to them.  They might get mad at you, but they will not bring rude words to you.  You will put out the fire of talebearing.  They will soon realize that you are right and, your other friend will not have their feelings hurt.  Stop talebearing!  Stop gossip!  Be kind to others and guard your mouth.  God will be pleased, and so will your friends.