Proverbs 7:1-5
1 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; 2 keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; 3 bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend, 5 to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
What will keep us safe from temptation, from the "adulteress with her smooth words" (verse 5)? The writer of Proverbs gives us some clues here: "treasure up my commandments with you" (verse 1), "keep my commandments" (verse 2), "write them on the tablet of your heart" (verse 3), and "call insight your intimate friend" (verse 4). To start with, we need to know and value God's teachings. They are to be "as the apple of your eye" (verse 2), meaning that they are not just some boring rules to memorize, but are treasures that we are to love. We need to internalize these truths and restructure our lives to value them. We also need to be proactive in our purity; we can't just hope that the temptation will go away; we need to instead lay the groundwork of our purity by being close to God's word and wisdom.
Lord, help me to value Your word and wisdom.
1 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; 2 keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; 3 bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend, 5 to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
What will keep us safe from temptation, from the "adulteress with her smooth words" (verse 5)? The writer of Proverbs gives us some clues here: "treasure up my commandments with you" (verse 1), "keep my commandments" (verse 2), "write them on the tablet of your heart" (verse 3), and "call insight your intimate friend" (verse 4). To start with, we need to know and value God's teachings. They are to be "as the apple of your eye" (verse 2), meaning that they are not just some boring rules to memorize, but are treasures that we are to love. We need to internalize these truths and restructure our lives to value them. We also need to be proactive in our purity; we can't just hope that the temptation will go away; we need to instead lay the groundwork of our purity by being close to God's word and wisdom.
Lord, help me to value Your word and wisdom.