Posted on 04/04/2021 11:26:16 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge” (Proverbs 5:1, 2).
“That thou mayest regard discretion,” well, think about what discretion is. A fairly good definition is found in proverbs 19:11: “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger.”
That applies strongly to what we just read in proverbs 5:2. You see, our problem is that we don't naturally care too much to regard discretion. Discretion is about temperance. It’s about moderate responses. It's about not about flying off the handle. It's not about being precarious and precipitous. What we want to do is we want to feel something and then follow up on it. If we're mad, we want to go blow up at somebody. If we're frustrated, we want to throw something.
“The discretion of a man deferreth his anger,” and so, what you attend to God's wisdom for and bow your ear to in 5:1 is “that thou mayest regard discretion,” because the natural man doesn't have much regard for discretion. The natural man does not like to have reigns over him. The natural man does not like governance. The natural man is not particularly self-governed. Now, there may be in certain areas some very disciplined people that are not saved; I understand that, but in other areas many times they are not self-disciplined, nor do they want to be.
How many times can you a number off on your fingers in the gospels that the Lord Jesus Christ flew off the handle and went after somebody on an instant. This is not to say He never got angry, because he was; but you could never say the Lord Jesus Christ lost it to some kind of temper tantrum. When the Lord Jesus Christ started to chase those folks out of the temple with whips, I don't think for a second that He lost it. If he had, those sellers and money changers would have been dead.
One of the things that you ought to get from this, and again; this is doesn't appeal to our nature much is that we attend to wisdom and bow our ear to understanding so that we may regard discretion. Hopefully, we have gotten some stuff out of proverbs so that we might regard discretion and highly esteem discretion, so that the next time something comes you respond more discreetly rather than flyoff the handle about something. This way we don't shoot somebody on the freeway with your shotgun. Or punch somebody in the mouth, or say something stupid, or fly off the handle, or yield to temptation and go back to drinking, etc.
“That thou mayest regard discretion,” that's one edge. That is why you attend to wisdom, and bow down to understanding, that you may regard discretion. “. . . and that thy lips may keep knowledge,” that’s the second edge. So, it's a two-edged thing. You read here to get something; and what you need to leave with is a greater guard for discretion. Be tempered in all things, let your moderation be known unto all men and so on, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. This is so that when God sends somebody to you, you can answer unto them “the words of truth” (Proverbs 22:21).
“That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.”
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Describes me for a lot of years when I pretended to be a Christian while falling into the ways of the world . I now watch my words and actions with Gods word and counsel before doing anything . Through this I am able to have moments of peace and far fewer regrets because of my ignorance. Glory to God and his son our saviour Jesus Christ.
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