PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1 KJV).

You cannot serve God and mammon. There is just no way. Jesus tells us to put God first, and the other things will take care of themselves. Then He goes on and talks about our eating, and drinking, and taking care of the flesh and the body. God knows what you need! And then He goes on to tell about how God takes care of the lilies, and He takes care of the birds, therefore He says . . .

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Mat 6:33-34 KJV).

Now, that is not the first thing that people look to, but if you want success in your life, that is where it’s got to be. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. If you want love, if you want joy, if you want peace—the only place you will ever find it—is in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, listening to the Spirit, and yielding to the Sprit. When you yield to the flesh—you sow to the flesh—and you reap corruption. That’s all there is to it. There isn’t any sense in arguing about it, no sense in trying to change it . . . that’s just the way it is.

So, a person ought to be balanced. They ought to spend time on the spiritual nature—that’s the most important nature, that is the eternal nature. We ought not to neglect our physical nature, completely. I believe in some areas you ought to deny it. Paul speaks about denying yourself. To do so would be to deny the soul because really, the soul is the being. Sometimes it isn’t physical things that keep some people from the Lord, sometimes they just want to be left alone. You ever get like that? You just get so sick and tired of people and life. Well, deny the flesh, Live for the Lord, stay in the race—don’t quit, don’t throw in the flag— “A false balance is abomination to the LORD.”

“A just weight is His delight.” Learn to balance things. Learn to give yourself to prayer and the Bible. But there again, understand the physical needs of life. If you have a family, there are physical needs. Some men get so desirous of serving God—nothing wrong with that—but the Devil gets behind them, and since he can’t push them toward the physical side of life, he gets behind them and pushes them toward the spiritual, to an extreme position, where they deny all the needs of the flesh. And the children go without love and fellowship with their parents that they ought to have. Dad is out doing this and living for God and serving God, and the wife is neglected, the children are neglected. That isn’t right.

God gives you a family, you ought to spend time with them and fellowship with them, and pray with them, and take them places. Go on picnics. Kids have demands, don’t let them be fulfilled somewhere else. You say, “I don’t have time for that! People are dying and going to hell!” Well, okay. Don’t let your kids die and go to hell. God gave you children. Spend time with them, on their level. Don’t expect them to come up to your level. They only way to enjoy fellowship with children is to go down to their level and just enjoy me. After all, isn’t that what God does for us? Play hide-and-seek with them, get in a wrestling match with them, chase your kids all through the house.

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