Your folly has ruined your life, forget your heart’s rage at the Lord 19:3 A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD
I've known a few Bill Smith's over the years. Whenever I read this proverb, I think of the first I knew. This Bill came regularly to the church where I grew up. I remember him once saying to me that he was very disappointed with the Lord because the Lord had not provided him with a wife. I can picture him now holding his Bible in his hand, black dirt visible under every nail, wearing his scruffy suit and unpolished shoes. His hair was greasy and unkempt, his glasses needed a polish and his shirt partly adrift revealed a dirty vest underneath. I was only a teenager but it did strike me that a lack of effort in the hygiene and neatness departments on his part may have had something to do with his problem. Not all our problems are caused by our own folly but in many cases most of our problems can be traced back to just that. As Job Orton once pointed out, men too often blame God for bad health when they have been intemperate; for difficult circumstances when they have made a bad choice; for rocky family relations when they have been neglectful and a lack of spiritual peace or progress when they have not made use of the means of grace. If we are believers, we can be sure that God is working everything together for our good. Sometimes we do not understand why we have to suffer certain things but for anyone’s heart to rage against God is foolish and sinful.
I've known a few Bill Smith's over the years. Whenever I read this proverb, I think of the first I knew. This Bill came regularly to the church where I grew up. I remember him once saying to me that he was very disappointed with the Lord because the Lord had not provided him with a wife. I can picture him now holding his Bible in his hand, black dirt visible under every nail, wearing his scruffy suit and unpolished shoes. His hair was greasy and unkempt, his glasses needed a polish and his shirt partly adrift revealed a dirty vest underneath. I was only a teenager but it did strike me that a lack of effort in the hygiene and neatness departments on his part may have had something to do with his problem. Not all our problems are caused by our own folly but in many cases most of our problems can be traced back to just that. As Job Orton once pointed out, men too often blame God for bad health when they have been intemperate; for difficult circumstances when they have made a bad choice; for rocky family relations when they have been neglectful and a lack of spiritual peace or progress when they have not made use of the means of grace. If we are believers, we can be sure that God is working everything together for our good. Sometimes we do not understand why we have to suffer certain things but for anyone’s heart to rage against God is foolish and sinful.
No comments:
Post a Comment