“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."
Proverbs 1:32-33
The blessed, wondrous grace of the Lord is made perfect in the love and the trust that we place in Him...
Consider today the wisdom of Solomon. The world is full of the simple and the foolish, those who place their trust in the temporal power and the earthly wealth that they can gain. They put their hope in the authority that they can claim over the lives of others and the delights of the flesh. They go wayward, wandering amidst this world, hoping only in what they can grab a hold of. They are complacent amidst the plight of others, letting their apathy guide them as people suffer amidst the greatest struggle.
It ventures far from the road and the path that God has intended for us. It moves in a way that forsakes the word of the Lord and the truth of His word.
Yet the blessed promise of God is that those who listen to Him, those who abide in Him, they shall live in safety and shall find the wondrous rest of His grace, far from harm.
This is an assurance to us, that if we dwell in the love that He has intended, if we show the mercy and the grace, the compassion and the hope in the lives of others that He commands of us then He shall bless our lives with rest and comfort. Our reward, it may not come in this life, it may only come to us in the next, yet it shall come as He moves in our lives and through our lives through the power of His Spirit to make good use of the faith that He has given us for the edification and the nourishment, the help and the comfort of others.
How then do you use the grace of the Lord? Are you complacent like the fool or wayward like the simple, wandering for your own ease and comfort, dwelling in your own delights? Or do you uplift the cause of others? Do you use the blessings and the gifts God has given unto you to proclaim the wondrous freedom of His love while you strive for the cause of liberty?
Throughout this world there are those who are in desperate need of our help. Captives are taken and slaves are made, people are left in poverty and destitution, bondage and oppression come to encompass their lives. Through God’s love and the blessings of His Word we are called to these people’s cause, seeking to help restore hope in their lives. How then will you hear the call of the Lord and how will you seek to strive for their greatest possible hope? How will you seek to bless them and sanctify them through the deeper love that God expects of us? Will this be the cause of your life or will you let it fall idly by the side while you seek your own personal good?
Search your heart, search your spirit, and let the mercy God has endowed upon your soul guide you. When you do, you shall find the hope He has called you too and it shall call you to bring it in the lives of others. To forsake that is to forsake the ease and the rest of the Heavenly Kingdom, those places of comfort that God calls us all to amidst the blessed reward for those who have marked their faith with deeds and their belief with action as they dwelt in the miracle of His love.
Lord, let us then be those who dwell in your ways as we strive to be agents of Your love, never forsaking Your path or Your righteousness.
Let us pray:
O Rock of My Hope, O Shield of my Life, guide me by Your promises, protect me by Your Word that I may show forth Your grace in my life by the blessings of Your transcending, encompassing love...
Let me never be wayward like the simple nor complacent like the foolish, but let me dwell in Your truth that I may rise up with the voice of authority to proclaim Your power through the nations. Lead me in Your commands and show forth Your love to my life in Your assurances that my faith shall be marked by my deeds and I shall show the courage and the endurance I so need to uplift the cause of the prisoners and the hostages, the captives and the slaves, the poor and the destitute through all the days of my life.
Show forth Your mercy O Lord that my compassion shall be marked with Your hope as I strive day by day to magnify Your blessings of freedom in the lives of those who are in need. This that I may find that my spirit is guided by Your Spirit and that my soul is guided by the commands of my Savior Christ Jesus, who commands me to reveal Your love in the lives of others in a sincere willingness to serve them in all that I am and all that I do.
Let me be a good steward of the blessings You have bestowed upon me that the plight of the oppressed and the weak, the hungry and the sick, the subjugated and the downtrodden shall be forever and always be on my lips as my hands are raised amidst their struggles and their plights. This that they may find they are restored to the blessings of liberty You have promised unto them by Your power and not my own hands as they are sanctified in Your wondrous freedom.
Then shall I know that I will come to the blessed rest and the miraculous comfort You have assured me, for I have been guided by Your ways and Your will has always been my guiding light.
In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.
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