Proverbs 19
I would offer that the word love is not a verb, it is a noun. It is not a thing you do. It is the light that you are made of and what you were created to be.
Wealthy or Poor
1 Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and a fool.
2 Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.
3 People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.
4 Wealth makes many “friends”; poverty drives them all away.
5 A false witness will not go unpunished, nor will a liar escape.
6 Many seek favors from a ruler; everyone is the friend of a person who gives gifts!
7 The relatives of the poor despise them; how much more will their friends avoid them! Though the poor plead with them, their friends are gone.
8 To acquire wisdom is to love oneself; people who cherish understanding will prosper.
9 A false witness will not go unpunished, and a liar will be destroyed.
10 It isn’t right for a fool to live in luxury or for a slave to rule over princes!
11 Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.
12 The king’s anger is like a lion’s roar, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
13 A foolish child is a calamity to a father; a quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping.
14 Fathers can give their sons an inheritance of houses and wealth, but only the Lord can give an understanding wife.
15 Lazy people sleep soundly,but idleness leaves them hungry.
16 Keep the commandments and keep your life; despising them leads to death.
17 If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord- and he will repay you!
18 Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives.
19 Hot-tempered people must pay the penalty. If you rescue them once, you will have to do it again.
20 Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.
21 You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.
22 Loyalty makes a person attractive. It is better to be poor than dishonest.
23 Fear of the Lord leads to life, bringing security and protection from harm.
24 Lazy people take food in their hand but don’t even lift it to their mouth.
25 If you punish a mocker, the simpleminded will learn a lesson; if you correct the wise, they will be all the wiser.
26 Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.
27 If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.
28 A corrupt witness makes a mockery of justice; the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.
29 Punishment is made for mockers, and the backs of fools are made to be beaten. (NLT)
insights
Proverbs 19:3
Wealthy or poor… abundance can be experienced in either economic state when we embrace that which brings life. In the same way, when we exist in darkness, wealthy or poor matters little to our happiness. This truth may be best understood by those who have been impoverished by their foolishness and those who have lived among the foolish. It has been expressed many times over in contemporary art and song.
Proverbs 19:8 and Proverbs 19:20
“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge. The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom, but rather of his faith and lovingness. If he is indeed wise, he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding. The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm or the voice that echoes it. And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man. And even as each one of you stands alone in God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.”
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet – 1923
Proverbs 22
Wealthy or poor has nothing to do with how we are seen by others. The kind of person we are and how we treat others carries far more weight. The Lord himself presents perfect picture of loyalty vividly expressed by Lauren Daigle in her song titled simply ‘Loyalty’. This is the loyalty we should aspire to.
lynnibug
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