Proverbs 5:7-14
…and you say, “How I hated discipline,
Proverbs 5:12-14
and my heart despised reproof!
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”
Ah, the voice of regret. Can any of us say that we have not uttered (or at least thought) something similar? Perhaps we have not quite been at the brink of utter ruin, but I daresay we have all at some point hated discipline and despised reproof and went on to suffer the negative consequences of failing to heed good counsel and teaching. How much better it is to accept godly wisdom from those who have gone before than to insist on learning from our own mistakes!
Amen and amen and amen to that, John!
… lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner … (v. 10). This is a good word for those of us who waste our time in this or that activity when we could be doing something useful. On December 31, 2003 I decided to quit playing computer games. I had been spending probably an hour or more most every day wasting my time with them. Now I haven’t played one since. Victory! But I’m sure that there are still other wasted hours that could be more usefully applied!