Wisdom for the Day: Proverbs 9:10

Sometimes it is your gut that tells you, don’t go there, don’t say that, don’t do that, but we are too wise. The result can be disastrous. How can we avoid that? Proverbs 9 v10 tells us:

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver,
but the heart of the wicked is of little value.
21 The lips of the righteous nourish many,
but fools die for lack of sense.

How discerning are we with what we listen to. It can sometimes be a minefield trying to discern; is someone speaking truth or is someone talking rubbish.

In these days we may have more time to listen to what comes out of peoples mouths, more time to listen to read blogs or listen to vlogs. Which convey how these people see things.

With computers we have been taught ‘if you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out. If we listen to fools, if we listen to wickedness and we affix value and worth to what we hear from them then it is little wonder we are restless. Our hearts and minds have been contaminated and polluted and we feel that in our lives.

If, on the other hand, we listen to the truth we have a chance of speaking truth and we are told that it is the most valuable thing. The lips of the righteous nourish many but who are the righteous. How do we know? Who are the righteous, it is those that are lawful, just, those that are morally and ethically clean, those that are pure and uncontaminated.

I saw a set of pictures of different cities before lockdown and now. The contrast was startling, contaminated and polluted, dim and hazy before. Clear and sharp now, the pollution is gone. And it doesn’t take long. Remember the news report from the Indian towns who saw the Himalayas for the first time in 30 years.

What we listen to matters, if it is righteous, if it is spoken by those that are just, ethically and morally right we will thrive and cause others to thrive. How do we discerne the choice silver though–it comes from Gods word, his laws, it comes from the righteous one, Jesus Christ and his teaching. That should be our litmus test.

The alternative is like the computer; crap in / crap out.

So lets not be swayed by influential speech from those who convey the wisdom of man lets not be swayed by the foolishness of man, lets instead weigh things up and measure them against godly wisdom and godly justice and the values of Jesus given succinctly in the sermon on the mount.