Proverbs 18:1-12
The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
Proverbs 18:10-11
the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
A rich man’s wealth is his strong city,
and like a high wall in his imagination.
Two places of security. One is invisible, but outshines the sun. The other is in plain sight, but will fade away. One seems intangible, but is rock solid. The other can be easily touched, but will dissolve into nothing. One is eternal. The other is merely temporal. One is the ultimate Reality. The other is just imagination.
The rational choice of fortresses is quite clear — but it hinges entirely on faith. With faith, the rational choice is to run to the LORD. Without faith, the rational choice is to stick with the material world. So, which is real, and which is imaginary to you? Are you sure?
John, you pose a couple of good questions at the end of your explanation. How does one determine if faith in God and His safety is real or imagination? I guess I might have had a bit of “doubting Thomas” in me, but it took an actual miracle happening to me to know for sure His intangible, invisible security is rock solid. I knew (or had knowledge of) God’s security, but when a miracle happened there was no doubt, and the former “knowledge of” became reality. A big difference, at least for me!
If we take a few moments and look, all of us can spot the miracles that are given so freely by God (His grace).
May you easily spot the miracles in your lives!
Bruce,
I, too, have had extraordinarily good things happen in my life. When explaining to others, I have always said, “that was a God-thing”, meaning that I believe God had a hand in making good things happen throughout my life, usually at a time when I really needed His help. I realize that many of those things couldn’t have happened any other way. As a result, most of my prayers begin with “Thank you, Lord”. The older I become, the more thankful I become.
Bruce and Tom speak of miracles and “extraordinarily good things” in their lives. You all may recall that RTB was an active, in-person group, meeting every month or two after church on Sundays. If we had been meeting in person, Bruce’s and Tom’s comments would likely have called for the stories behind the miracles and those extraordinarily good things and we’d have all been blessed! Those are good stories, worth sharing in this online forum, so as to encourage the rest of us. Those glory-sightings are worth sharing!