21:1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;
he turns it wherever he will.
2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the heart.
3 To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart,
the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
6 The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.
7 The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,
because they refuse to do what is just.
8 The way of the guilty is crooked,
but the conduct of the pure is upright.
9 It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
10 The soul of the wicked desires evil;
his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.
11 When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise;
when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.
12 The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked;
he throws the wicked down to ruin.
13 Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself call out and not be answered.
14 A gift in secret averts anger,
and a concealed bribe, strong wrath.
15 When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous
but terror to evildoers.
16 One who wanders from the way of good sense
will rest in the assembly of the dead.
17 Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man;
he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
18 The wicked is a ransom for the righteous,
and the traitor for the upright.
19 It is better to live in a desert land
than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.
20 Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling,
but a foolish man devours it.
21 Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness
will find life, righteousness, and honor.
22 A wise man scales the city of the mighty
and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.
23 Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue
keeps himself out of trouble.
24 “Scoffer” is the name of the arrogant, haughty man
who acts with arrogant pride.
25 The desire of the sluggard kills him,
for his hands refuse to labor.
26 All day long he craves and craves,
but the righteous gives and does not hold back.
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination;
how much more when he brings it with evil intent.
28 A false witness will perish,
but the word of a man who hears will endure.
29 A wicked man puts on a bold face,
but the upright gives thought to his ways.
30 No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel
can avail against the Lord.
31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
but the victory belongs to the Lord.
(ESV)
New Compass Website
Acts 4
Acts 3
Acts 2
Acts 1
Luke 24
Luke 23
Luke 22
Luke 21
Luke 20
i wish i knew wat verse to comment on but there were soo many good ones i loved this chapter
Pro 21:3 To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
God wants to change our hearts – not to perform the religious practices of the day without the proper humility. The new heart He gives us should desire, at the core, to do the right thing instead of going through the motions. Doing what is righteous is evidence of repentance and trust in Christ.
23 He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.
So often it is our tongues and not our actions that get us into trouble. We can be deceived to think that it is ok to say bad things as long as we do not do bad things. This is a lie! Jesus talked about the connection between what we have in our hearts and what comes out of our mouths in Luke 6:45, ” The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” The truth is that evil speech is the result of an evil heart. We must pray daily for God to forgive our sins and the wickedness that tends to crowd our hearts so that we can speak and live lives that bring glory to Him. When we guard our heart and tongue we keep ourselves out of trouble!
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable— how much more so when brought with evil intent!
this passage reminded me of Dan Lauder sermon on how we need to be offering oursleves as sacrifices to God. but he said that we need to be offering ourselves 100%, not even 99%. our perfect God is perfectly jealous, and He doesnt want our lame sacrifices, He wants our everything. if our sacrifice to Him is showing off, like the Pharisees, this Proverb clearly states that the Lord detests it
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
This is a great reminder that no matter how well planned out, thought ahead, how many people we have on board with us telling us it’s a good idea or even logical our plans are they are completely in the Lord’s hands. This verse made me think of James 4:13-15 where we are warned not to boast about our own plans but instead say “If the Lord wills”…
21 He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
Everyone wants to prosper. How one pursues prosperity makes all the difference. Some people pursue it by lying, cheating, and stealing. Others pursue it by being people pleasers and trying to fit in with the crowd. Some pursue it by self promotion and selfishness. Still others by backbiting and putting others down in a dog eat dog mentality. However, the Bible tells us that if we pursue righteousness and love by continually doing what is right in both the little and big things we will prosper and have honor. This lies in stark contrast to how most people in the world think,
Cameron, that comment is so true!
26 All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.
Is one of the ways that you are characterized “giving without sparing”? This one is hard to follow through with, but as Christians we should be always trying to show the love of Christ (sacraficial love) to everyone. Because of this people will know that we are Christians because of how we love them with unrestrained giving.
Verse 12
The lord is watching everyone and he knows about ever action and thought that we do so we need to make sure that we are living a righteous and pleasing life and if we haven’t been we need to ask for forgivness and then stop doing that sin.
As for me I watch and hope for the lord
21 He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
If we truely try our hardest to find God then we will succeed. He loves everyone who desires to fallow His ways. He will provide us with eternal life and prospertiy. On Earth our life may be full of persecution and trials, but its worth it in the end to be able to life with God in eternal peace and joy.
ONLY TEN COMMENTS????? Come on people!!!
13 If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.
We have been told to do unto others what we want them to act towards us. The way we act to other people will be the way others act towards us. Here it shows what bad can happen if we treat others poorly. If we are never there to help friends, why should they try and help us in our times of trouble? Here it uses the poor as an example. If we never give to them and all of a sudden we become poor, with a reputation for being selfish, nobody would want to help us out. Let’s treat others in the right way, not just because we want them to treat us nicely in return, but because it’s the right thing to do!
mmmmm very true Cameron! Nice comment!
9 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
19 Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.
Notice how Solomon mentions twice in this passage about a troublesome wife. He shows how important it is to have a wife that is prudent and humbles herself before her husband, and before God! God admires humility and people that are wise through obedience of scripture. He compares it to living in the dessert, that is how important a righteous marriage is to God! I just thought this passage was interesting.
THere was something else that I was going to comment on but now I can’t remember….OH!
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
This verse just says it all! We may make plans and think that it will succeed but only God knows exactly what is going to happen in our lives. Like vsunshine said, God knows everything that’s going on in our lives so we need to make sure that we live an upright life that is pleasing to God! :D
21 He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
I find this verse pretty powerful just thinking about it. We need to pursue righteousness. We got to be looking for things to do right. Just wanting to please God and bring Him the glory! We need to live a life of love just putting people before and honor our parents in all we do.
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.
Nothing can succeed that is against the Lord it is impossible, they don’t even have a chance to have victory, because victory belongs to our Lord!!! That should encourage our faith in Christ because we all know that nothing is impossible with the Lord Luke 1:37…Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Sure they can as much horses or best weapons or best equipment with them but the victory will rest in the Lord, and the Lord has all power and all glory! He created us and He has done things that people can not explain and has done so many things that they can not be all written down! John 21:25
5 The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
hmm… this verse reminds me of HOMEWORK and Pastor Bobby’s remarkable homework sermon! Right now, as a high school student our “job” is to go to school and do our homework, but are we diligent in our work?? As Bobby Blakey has asked us before, do we do our homework as if we are about to turn it in to God?? Yes, many of us do not have a lot of work to do this CHRISTMAS break (as it was called in the 90′s!), but this verse should remind us to do our work for the glory of the Lord when we go back to school!! (i know, it’s too early to think about it, sorry but i had to!! haha) :D
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.
These two verses were great in understanding that no matter what we try to do, or what we think that we can do, everything that happens is in the Lord’s will and will happen how He wants it.
This just shows how our Lord is in control of everything, and if we do not repent of our sins and place our faith in Him, then He will cast those people into hell, separated from Him forever.
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
I find sooo much comfort in this verse. No one can hinder the plans of God! We have to keep in mind that no matter how much evil there is in the world, we have nothing to fear because God is with us :]
26 All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.
When we have a huge list of things to do, its very easy to get bitter at obligations. But instead of complaining and wishing they were not there, we need to commit to them 100% for the Lord, and then give generously with what we receive from our efforts. But if we are lazy it will lead to poverty, which isnt just bad in that it will affect us, but it will effect others, because we are supposed to be giving to those who are in need. So even though all the work we have to do may not be fun, we need to commit to it 100%, not for our own betterment, but rather for the glory of the Lord.
11 …when a wise man is instructed, he gets knowledge.
I like the blinding difference with between the fool and the wise man when they are rebuked. A fool is too prideful to realize that what they are doing is wrong, But a wise man knows the ways of man are imperfect, so he knows that he is capable of error. What does he have to gain from rejecting helpful instruction? the person correcting him obviously wants to help him, so if his instruction is rejected he will think worse of the person because they were doing something the wrong way, and are too prideful to admit that they were wrong instead of changing. when the wise person accepts his instruction, the only thing that can be looked down upon is that he wasn’t able to figure it out by himself, instead of that plus being too pridefull to change. We need to lower our level of pride in order to be willing to take God’s instruction and man’s good instruction, like from our parents or our friends.
2 All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.
Very true. Could we be blinded to some sin in our lives? Think about it. Have you ever rationalized saying, watching, or doing something? You may say “Come on God doesn’t really care if I (fill in the blank). It’s just a little (fill in the blank).” As this verse explains we could be in some sin and if we don’t destroy it now it could lead us to a struggle with following God rather than a relationship with him. We have to stop rationalizing sins which God commands us to put to death. Sooner or later and to our benefit we will realize that we can’t hide anything from God for he is the one who “weighs the heart” I also struggle with this at times and that is why I pray that God through the Holy Spirit would convict us of sins that we had in the past rationalized in order to feel guilty. AMEN!
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable— how much more so when brought with evil intent!
It doesnt matter what you try to do for God if your heart is not right. What God desires from us is a repentant heart that desires to please Him. If we are still living in sin, then no matter how much our deeds may fool others – or even ourselves – God will never be deceived. We need to make sure that we are coming before God with pure hearts that have turned away from sin and to Him, with hearts that delight in bringing Him glory.
1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
Pastor Mike talked about this at the last Compass Night. He said that this is like splashing water around in the bathroom sink with your hand. “Pssh!” and it goes over here. “Pssh!” and it goes over there. It’s easy. It is like this for God to control kings and rulers. He turns them wherever he wants.
This is important for us to remember as Barack Obama becomes president in less than a month. I am shocked by how so many Christians respond inappropriately to this. We need to trust that God is really in control. God will do with America whatever he pleases. This is a good proverb for us to think about.
19 Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.
Palm Springs here I come!
haha.
27.) The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable— how much more so when brought with evil intent!
Great comment Cameron totally tracking with that!!
21 He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
This reminds me of that part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about worrying about what you will eat or wear. He says to seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added. If we seek righteousness, he will give us everything we need, but if we focus on our needs we will only get temporary satisfaction at best.
9 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
19 Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.
Twice it talks about how wives should not act.
As girls we should really think about this because God takes it seriously!
23 He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.
How many times have we said something and then innstantly regretted it? We need to guard ourselves so that we don’t end up hurting others with what we say. Remembering that we must glorify the Lord in ALL that we do.
21 He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
He says that if we do what is right we will be rewarded with life, prosperity, and honor. However this most likely will not happen on Earth but will definitely be found in heaven.
11 When a mocker is punished, the simple gain wisdom; when a wise man is instructed, he gets knowledge.
we can never be done learning. this verse really shows me how to take every oppurtunity to gain wisdom and always listening to others advice
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.
These are such cool verses! I love the first one because it talks about how everything is under God’s control (which i have found out are defenitely good words to live by). And the second one talks about judgement day when Jesus rides down with an army to conquer earth (i think).