Proverbs 19:15

“Laziness brings on deep sleep; an idle person will suffer hunger.”

When I was younger, there was a hepatitis outbreak on my college campus. Unfortunately, I was one of the young people to get it. Our family doctor recommended a diet regimen and rest for three months, giving my liver a chance to recovery. At the end of the three months, he pronounced me well and told me that I could go back to my regular activities. The problem was, I was still tired. Tired all the time. I asked the doctor about it, afraid that I still had active hepatitis. He told me that I was fine, but that the inactivity had caused my body to feel tired. What I needed to do was ignore my tiredness and get active again. Do exercise. Get out. Eventually the tired feeling would disappear.

Often, we respond to symptoms or feelings rather than doing what we know intellectually (or spiritually) to be right or heathy. If we are angry or depressed, we indulge ourselves. The problem is, indulgence leads to more indulgence which leads to our being angry more because our expectations are wrong. As believers, we need to break the cycle, to step outside of responding to our feelings, and do what we know to be right based on the Word of God.

“Laziness brings on deep sleep.” Times of inactivity or indulgence simply make us more tired, make us more self-centered, literally put our consciences to sleep. The opposite of laziness is self-discipline. Self-discipline creates a soul that is attuned to God’s will, sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Laziness (self-indulgence) creates a soul that is self-centered, resistant to God’s leading.

The problem is, the result of laziness is hunger. In the case of the laziness of self-indulgence, the hunger is spiritual. And spiritual hunger leads to spiritual weakness. Then, when the true attacks come, we are unable to stand under them because we are unfit . . . spiritually unfit. The time for self-discipline is now before the attacks come. We need to learn to pray, to study, to submit our wills to His. We need to cast off laziness and self-indulgence and wrap ourselves in the self-discipline that comes through walking every moment with the Spirit.

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 19:13

“A stupid child is ruin to a father, and a wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.”

Ultimately we are left with family. In fact, that may be why so many people get divorced or break up relationships. They are looking for the kind of stability that one should find within a family. Perhaps the idea of a soul mate even comes from this longing, the longing to have a place called “home” within which there is love and safety and comfort.

This proverb isn’t about children who lack intelligence, but rather about children who are foolish and silly. Matthew Henry writes:

“A son that will apply himself to no study or business, that will take no advice, that lives a lewd, loose, rakish life, and spends what he has extravagantly, games it away and wastes it in the excess of riot, or that is proud, foppish, and conceited, such a one is the grief of his father, because he is the disgrace, and is likely to be the ruin, of his family.”

Proverbs 23:24-25 states that “the father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who begets a wise son will be glad in him. Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.”

There is a reciprocity within the parent-child relationship. Parents are to raise their children to be righteous; children are to choose the path of righteousness. When these children turn their backs on the Lord, it is a great sorrow to the parents. Wise children follow the Lord and His will. Foolish children stand up in arrogance and turn their backs on everything their parents believe and taught.

In a similar fashion, a spouse who sees only want and despair and whose talk is full of criticism and anger also brings discord to a home. The proverb speaks specifically of wives, but both spouses have a responsibility to take their burdens to the Lord and to bring encouragement and love to the home. God never intended for the home to be the haven for gossip, anger, and discontent. The home is the first point of ministry, the first place that a Christian should practice sacrificial love.

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 19:11

“Those with good sense are slow to anger, and it is their glory to overlook an offense.”

We get angry over a lot of things. To be honest, Americans as a society are pretty angry. Perhaps it stems from our idea of “rights.” We believe (and expect) that certain things are due us, that our lives should include the ability to choose and have and do (sometimes even without consequence). When those expectations are denied, we get angry.

It’s also a form of control. Here in America (and in other countries), we have come to believe that we control our own destiny. We choose the vocation or profession or job we will have. We choose where to live, who to marry, how many children we will have (aborting the rest). We choose when we will work and when we will play (and we play a lot!). So when we are denied these things, we get angry.

We often couch our anger in morality, claiming that this or that is unfair or wrong. But if we are honest, many times our protests cover our fear. We cannot control the situation so anger is better than . . . trust. You see, God is in control. All the time, in all things, through all people. And while we all have free will, ultimately His plans will come to effect.

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NRSV). This verse doesn’t say that God will only work out the good things or the things we control or when we are obedient (as opposed to sinning). It says that He will work out all things. And often, He works them out with Heaven in mind. That means the story doesn’t end here, on earth, but rather ends There, with Him. Hebrews 11:39-40a tell us that “yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better.” They didn’t receive what was promised. In other words, the “they lived happily ever after” didn’t happen in this life. Why? Because God promised something better: Heaven.

The Lord Jesus taught us that we are to “enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14 NRSV). The road is hard that leads to life. That’s pretty clear. If we continue to look for the easy way, we may miss the way altogether.

So what does all this have to do with being slow to anger, to look over an offense? Well, the fact is that if God is working everything out for our God and if the “something better” He wants to provide isn’t here on earth, then those two old rules apply:

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
2. Everything is small stuff.

In other words, there’s no point in getting angry or afraid. There’s no point in holding onto resentment or wanting to get revenge. There’s no point even in trying to control. Rather we should be putting our efforts into living lives that glorify God through the fruit of the Spirit. We need to be focusing on being kind, being patience, being self-controlled, being gentle, being generous . . . and let God take care of everything else.

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 19:8

“To get wisdom is to love oneself; to keep understanding is to prosper.” NRSV

There has been much discussion in the past decades about people needing to love themselves. It is an unnecessary discussion. We do love ourselves. It is part of the flesh nature. We may not love the situation we’re in, but the fact is that we wouldn’t even have the conversation if we didn’t, by our very nature, love ourselves.

Satan, who is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44), tries to convince us that we need to spend more time focusing on loving ourselves. We need to focus on ourselves, to spend our time and resources getting for ourselves. We need to defend ourselves and get all that we deserve . . . for ourselves.

Rubbish!

Proverbs tells us that, if we truly love ourselves, we will first look to getting wisdom. That having wisdom is how we will prosper. And what is wisdom? Wisdom is God Himself.

In other words, if we truly love ourselves, we will do exactly the opposite of what feels comfortable. We will sacrifice, turn our backs on our own needs, and throw ourselves on the love and protection of our Heavenly Father Who is infinitely better suited to take care of us than we ourselves.

For example, it is innate in our being to want to protect our lives. As a culture, we Americans spend millions (might I say billions?) of dollars each year on health care, on beauty aids, on exercise, trying to extend our lives. And not only to extend them, but to look young and gorgeous in the process. If we, as Christians, get caught up in this insanity, we forget the basic premise of being a Christian. The apostle Paul taught us that “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Phil. 1:21 NRSV). In other words, there are only two states for a Christian. One is to live here in total self-sacrifice, doing only what Christ would have me do. The other is to die and gain everything from that death.

Why are we so afraid of dying? (And even in asking that question, many will deny it, and by that denial, admit it’s truth.) What is coming is far better than anything we could envision and imagine here. We run like hamsters in a cage trying to make this earth into a heaven, impossible as that is, when, in fact, we have Heaven—the true Heaven—already promised to us if we will only be faithful with the short time we have been given here.

If we want to love ourselves, we will put off the old man and, regardless of the suffering we may face, embrace Christ fully and without regard to the future. For only then is our future truly secured.

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 19:5

“A false witness will not go unpunished, and a liar will not escape.” (NRSV)

Our mouths get us into more trouble than most other things, particularly if we are the kind of people who consider ourselves to be moral. I mean, we would never consider shooting someone or punching them out. But it’s nothing to gossip about them with a co-worker in a hidden corner. Rather than express our anger and fear to someone else, we need to learn how to pray.

Often we think that our perception, our judgment is true, but we fail to gather all the facts. In fact, we can’t gather all the facts because we aren’t with that other person 24/7. So when we make critical remarks about them, the odds are greater that what we are saying is a lie than the truth. Their motivations may be far different than what we think they are.

Just yesterday something happened to one of my students and I went spouting off again rather than simply allowing the Lord to speak to me about what to do. Later in the evening, the Holy Spirit revealed to me a solution that wasn’t harmful to anyone and yet may clear the way to also provide necessary services to the student.

If only I’d waited to see what the Lord could and would do.

I think we often talk in anger or fear because we don’t really trust the Lord to work in that situation. Yes, we know He is all powerful and can do anything, but I think we often believe—down in the smallest recesses of our hearts—that likely He’s not interested in this situation. The fact is, He’s interested in anything and everything that touches our character! He loves us! And will give us the wisdom to walk through any situation if we only trust Him and ask Him.

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 19:4

“Wealth brings many friends, but the poor are left friendless.”

We are deluged with pictures of parties, frivolity, and laughter . . . in commercials and advertisements. Everyone seems so happy! And all because they bought____ (fill in the blank). In other words, they had money. And because of the money, they had friends.

Proverbs confirms it. Money brings friends. But what kind of friends? More importantly, what will happen to those friends when the money disappears? “Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin” (Proverbs 18:24 NRSV). A person who is my friend because I have the money to entertain them or to give them isn’t really my friend. “A friend loves at all times” (Proverbs 17:17 NRSV). If someone is truly my friend, she will be there even during the hard times.

But this proverb is more than just about friends. It’s about money and how we desire it in order to change and control our lives. We think that with money life will be easier; things will be better. We might even be more popular. The Lord Jesus talked about money: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24 NRSV). It can’t be much clearer than that. If our goal in life is to have money (more money than we have right now) or to hang onto the money we have, then we cannot serve God. In fact, if we have money (which all of us in America do), then we are actually commanded to be generous with it: “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:17-18 NRSV). Notice that it doesn’t say that all believers will be wealthy, but for those of us who are, we are to be generous, liberal in giving, openhanded. In fact, James tells us that if we have when another doesn’t and we refuse to give, we actually don’t have faith:

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:14-17 NRSV).

So, if we have, we are to give. And if we don’t have, we are to trust. Better to be poor and only have God for a friend than to be wealthy and have friends who will leave the moment the wealth disappears.

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 19:3

“One’s own folly leads to ruin, yet the heart rages against the Lord.”

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15).

Doing what I am supposed to do, according to the Bible, is one of the hardest things in life. It’s easy to be self-indulgent. It’s easy to be lazy. It’s easy to hide behind my emotions, my desires, my fears. It’s hard to be a Christian.

The Lord Jesus Himself promised us that we would be given power, the power of the Holy Spirit: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” But that power isn’t the power to change circumstances, to make our lives easier, even for happiness. That power is the power to witness: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

We need to ask ourselves what our purpose in life is. It isn’t, as many preachers might tell us, to find happiness, to live a long and productive life, or even to build a family. Our purpose—our sole purpose as believers—is to be a witness. And we can only be a witness when we strategically and deliberately live a life that is holy and pleasing to the Lord.

Just this morning, I was reading A. W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian. He writes:

“For a long time I have believed that truth, to be understood, must be lived; that Bible doctrine is wholly ineffective until it has been digested and assimilated by the total life. I have held this to be an important element in the preaching of the Old Testament prophets, and I have felt it to be near to the heart of the moral teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. I admit that this belief has made me a little lonely, for not many of my Christian brethren share it with me” (p. 92).

The only thing that separates a true believer from everyone else in the world is how she lives her life. If we live our lives understanding that we are a witness, that everyone else is looking at us to see what it means to have the power of the Holy Spirit within us, perhaps we will make different choices.

I know that I need to!

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).