Tuesday, July 11, 2023
The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in and puts his confidence in the LORD will be exalted and safe. Proverbs 29:25 AMP
How "Simple" Beliefs Lead Us Away from God
The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom written by Solomon. Solomon knew how important wisdom is. Wisdom is not just knowing things; wisdom is applying the knowledge you have gained. When he was younger, Solomon loved the Lord and walked in His ways. One night in a dream the Lord appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
(1 Kings 3:5) Solomon’s response was, “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” Verse 10 goes on to say that God was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom over all the other things he could have asked for.
The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. Proverbs 14:15
In this verse, “simple” is referring to those who are naïve or immature and easily misled. Prudent refers to someone who is wise or discerning. The warning here is to be mindful of everything you see and hear and every step you take. Satan is always trying to mislead us. He loves to distract us off the path, so we need to not be simple minded about what we believe and the things we do. Another way to look at simple here is being careless, or just not paying close attention to what we are believing and doing.
We can be simple minded when we are looking for a distraction, and we can fall into foolish ways when that happens. Sometimes we go looking for the right things, but we look in the wrong places. And sometimes we are looking for anything that will take our minds off what we don’t want to deal with. We are easily led astray when we are in this state. We are not being prudent or giving thought to our steps and we begin to make some foolish decisions. The problem with foolish decisions is that some of them can have some pretty serious consequences. How can we protect ourselves from this foolishness?
The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in and puts his confidence in the LORD will be exalted and safe. Proverbs 29:25 AMP
The fear of man here is referring to caring more about what people think more than what God would say. When we look for distractions, or when we want to take a little detour off the right path, we will be consumed with what other people have to say or think about us. We look to those opinions to make us feel better or find our identity in. But we can avoid all the consequences of these foolish choices if we follow they second half of that verse - But whoever trusts in and puts his confidence in the LORD will be exalted and safe. Proverbs 29:25b AMP
When we turn to the Lord to find what we need, we will be exalted and safe. When we turn to the Lord when we are not wanting to deal with the reality of our lives, we will be exalted and safe. When we turn to the Lord when we are hurting, we will be exalted and safe. When we turn to the Lord when we feel alone and afraid, we will be exalted and safe. Whatever we are going through, we always have the option of going to Him instead of making a simple minded, foolish choice. What we will find out when we turn to those other things - those foolish things - is that they only offer simple minded and foolish returns, and often ones that add more pain and heartache to our lives.
Turn to Him and trust in Him. If you feel yourself veering off the path to somewhere you shouldn’t be, run to Him as fast as you can. Even if you just sit with Him in the quiet, you are not making any foolish decisions. Let Him cover you and protect you from yourself. You can put your trust and confidence in Him because He is safe and will never let you down.
