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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Devotional - A Look at the Book #727

by Jesse Abel
Proverbs 1:7-9 – Being afraid of God and fearing God is two separate issues. If one is afraid of God that person is ignorant of Him. On the other hand if one has a fear (awe) of God; that one is blessed with the knowledge of getting to know Him personally.

Many of us struggle with jobs that pay to little, families that require much and the stress of making both ends meet when the rope that binds is too short. There are many factors that bring marriages to the brink of disaster, but it is family management that does the most damage. Financial matters interfere when the income is poorly managed; then when confronted with this, communication is nearly terminated resulting in arguments and sin.

Financial and family management are the root cause of all marriage problems and sin develops causing a sincere loss of faith between the husband and wife. This hardness of heart leads to a lapse in sexual desire and then a breakdown in common interests.

Secular marriage counseling could care less to patch up a broken family or the bond of marriage. Secular counseling is only interested in the profit and loss statement of the business of providing counsel (good or bad). This only adds to the conflict of an already injured and strained relationship. Secular counsel is not a temporary fix to deep rooted problem marital struggles since it is often the final act in the struggle to survive.

In the past I have had opportunity to counsel men who struggle with the loss of family. Most were inmates in the prisons of Connecticut, in nearly every case; budgeting and management of the family matters caused these men to react in foolish and sinful practices, causing their incarceration. (Proverbs 2:1-22)

Looking into the third chapter of Proverbs, there is more to say about the skill of living life. Life is not happy even when we think it is; life without wisdom to live it has no joy at all. So this is what Solomon says in Proverbs 3:13-14. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain then fine gold.

These words seem odd to the one who is ignorant of God and remember… “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of Wisdom”. Learn of Jesus and you will stay off the dead end streets of life; the only counsel one needs is to know the way that God has appointed for all of mankind to go. John 14:1-6.

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