The Way You Choose

Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of Yahweh always.  Surely there is a future, & your hope won’t be cut off.
  Listen and be wise, & direct your heart in the way.
 Don’t be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, & drowsiness will clothe one with rags Prov. 23:17-21

Part Two of Three

The passage continues in the third line by telling us to do three things:

• ·        Listen
• ·        Be wise
• ·        Direct your heart in the way

Listen

How many times in the Proverbs does the wise woman named “wisdom” beg us to listen to her?  She knows how much she could bless our lives, but we refuse her gift.  Read Proverbs 1.20-33, and read it carefully and closely.  In fact, pray over it and ask God to help you listen.

Be Wise

We aren’t wise, yet, so how do we obey this?  Let’s word it another way: “Don’t be foolish.”  In this case, envying others who seem to have what we don’t is an example of foolishness.  There are many other examples of foolishness in Proverbs.  Will you try to grow out of foolishness, or will you foolishly let this opportunity pass you by?

Direct your heart in THE WAY …

We tend to think of our relationship with God as being right or wrong – being in His “club” (church) or not.  But the scriptures consistently describe our lives as being in “The Way,” or “the way of the Lord.”  In fact in the first days of the disciples, the one true church of Christ was called “The Way” (Acts 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22; etc).  This is because it’s helpful to think of your life as a journey.  When you choose wise paths, the traveling is easier and you can go faster.  True, you don’t get as many stops for snacks … but you don’t end up in the bushes of folly, either.

Is it a sin to drink too much and drive?  Maybe – but even if it’s not, it’s foolish, because you may end up in a ditch or killing someone or other bad things.  Our lives are like that.  We choose to be people-pleasers or to be God-pleasers.  We can choose to be like everyone else and take the wide road, or we can choose the pathway of wisdom that goes through the narrow gate and leads to eternal life.

Which way will you choose?

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” – Jesus (Matthew 7:13-14)