LifeLink Devotions for Friday, February 21, 2025

I have done some very foolish things in my life. Fortunately, none of them got me in serious trouble. But they could have. I remember one time in particular when I crashed a car because I was trying to show off. I ended up in the ditch with the car leaning against a tree. That was a costly mistake based on a foolish choice made spontaneously to try to impress people.

It bothers me how quickly we can move from reason to impulse, especially when the rewards of impulsive actions seem so appealing. But the Bible calls all such choices, foolish, and it calls the person making those choices a fool. That’s because wisdom rationally considers every choice in light of both immediate and future consequences. Impulse eliminates the consideration of the future.

Listen carefully to how King Solomon personifies folly as a seductive woman who cannot see beyond the immediate.

Proverbs 9:13-18  “The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”

Here’s what Solomon warns us about the folly of impulsive behavior.

• Its temptation is loud and demands to be considered as valid.
• It offers immediate gratification without the need for knowledge of consequences.
• When followed, it reveals a person’s lack of common sense.
• The fool does not consider how others have failed and fallen from being foolish. Their pride tells them it can never happen to them.

My friends, as we draw to a close this study of the first nine chapters of Proverbs, which serve as an introduction to the individual bites of wisdom that follow, my prayer is that it has made you wiser and more alert to the deadly consequences of foolishness. I trust you have grown in your understanding of the value of following God’s wisdom, which is the foundation of all abundant life. I also believe that if God’s people, those born of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, would live wisely in this wicked world that more people would want what we have in Christ.

Control your impulses. Look beyond the pleasures of this world. Seek the wisdom of God and start where God tells you to start. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

Pastor John