1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight;
3 for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,
doing what is right and just and fair;

I know what I should do, I just don’t always do it. I know that I should go to the gym about three times a week and if I do, then I’ll feel better, sleep better at night, and the best benefit is that I can eat virtually whatever I want. Instead, there are many weeks when my gym time gets squeezed and I might go once or not at all. To make matters worse, I still eat pretty much whatever I want. Yes, I know.... I’m not exactly overweight but little or no exercise combined with my nightly dose of Blue Bell makes me feel like a slug.

In the first few verses of Proverbs 1, Solomon told us what we should do. We should work hard to acquire a wise and prudent life. This is not something that will come naturally. He said that the acquisition of a wise and prudent life requires two things- wisdom plus discipline. Translation: talk is cheap. It’s one thing to read the proverbs and be able to quote them from memory. It’s another thing to be able to apply the spiritual truths found in the Proverbs on a consistent basis in a way that leads to “a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair.”

In verses 8-19, Solomon used the example of being ‘enticed’ to join with sinners in order to go after ill- gotten plunder. While I cannot relate entirely with this specific temptation, I can relate to the temptation of enticement by sin in general and my own sin in particular.

At the heart of enticement is deception. Surely, It’s not that the poor guy who goes along with the bad guys doesn’t know that it’s wrong at some level to murder someone and take their stuff. Rather, he deceives himself into thinking that it’s OK to go along with them because it’s their idea and it sounds exciting and there is the promise of a great reward etc. and before he knows it, he is running down the road with the bad guys. Self-deception leads us down a slippery slope and we can justify almost anything. The result is that we end up doing what we don’t want to do and we don’t do what we really want to do..... (See Romans 7). Can you say frustration?

King Solomon wrote Proverbs to his Sons (and to us) to warn about the slippery slope of sin, to show where to stand on solid ground, and to lead us out of frustration and into joy and freedom. My prayer is that over the next thirty one days, we will gain great wisdom and renew our resolve to seek the Lord and live freely!