But lets take a couple of steps back before we unpack this verse and talk about general wisdom getting. The Bible is God's word and it is full of wisdom. We are told to get wisdom and in all or our getting, to acquire understanding as well. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom so we know where to start. And James tells us that we have not because we ask not. So it all starts by going to God and asking him to make us wise. But remember in your asking, to not ask amiss. This means, that you ask according to God's will. And you cannot do this if you are not in His word! So fill yourself with the scriptures so that they will ooze from every pore, and pray without ceasing. This is the beginning. Read the Word, know the Word, pray that God would use it to transform you and ask for wisdom. Doing all this in faith with the chief goal being to know God better so that you may serve him better. And this is the reason that memorizing verses from the Wisdom books is so important and that is why I am starting this little series in Proverbs.
Lets head back to our verse in Proverbs. It is a tough thing to rule yourself well. We are told again and again that you should not deny yourself any pleasure. We are told that it is our right to do as we like. We are preached the gospel of autonomy again and again. It is a revolutionary idea to deny yourself something. Wouldn't that be stiffling who I really am? Wouldn't that be bad for self expression? You bet it would and the world would be a better place if more of us ruled our spirits well. We are so often ruled by ourselves and our selfish lusts but God's way tells us to rule ourselves.
Another important point of this verse is that, lack of self control makes you an easy target for the enemy. If you are city without walls, you have made it easy for the enemy to walk in and plunder what he wants. If our walls are down, then we give into sin easily and are not able to put up a fight and say as our Lord did, "get behind me Satan."
Lets say the wall is down and the enemy(sin) has come in and you have been beaten. Lets put a little more flesh on it and say that you got frustrated and annoyed at one of the kids and you snapped. Lets go a little further and say that one of the kids dropped a full cup water all over the lovely dessert that you just pulled out of the oven, the dessert that you worked on for a couple of hours. And in that moment of serious temptation, you burst out with an angry word (or words). Ok, it is easy when reading to see at what point we need to stop and remind ourselves that it is not the end of the world to have your lovely dessert ruined. It is easy to remind ourselves that our kids are more important then our fancy dessert. But in the moment it is easy to let the wall fall and to keep it down so that we have no defenses. And once that wall is down there is only one way to build it again......repent of your sin. Ask God to forgive you, ask your kids to forgive. This is how you get the wall back up again.
But how do you keep the wall up? How do you build it tall and strong? Rule your spirit well. This is so broad and covers all areas of our life. Lets list a few and talk about how we can rule ourselves well. In our speech. We should stay guarded in our speech. This means that we are careful what we say and how we say it. What are you spending your time thinking about? This is one that takes great self control and self reflection. Is most of your time spent in Prayer? What you read effects what you think about. What you watch effects what you think about. So be careful about what you are reading and watching. Who are you spending time with? Are you going to Church? Are you repenting of your sin? Are you quick to forgive? This is just a little list of things to think about. Having a tall wall that can withhold temptations and keep us from sin, is the key to this proverb. And the wall is your self control. And self control comes from living in a way that is in accordance with the Scriptures. Again we see that it comes down to the basics: read your Bible, spend time in your Bible, spend time in prayer. And ask God to give you the fruits of spirit, one of them being self control. And when the wall comes down, repent quickly and walk on in faith knowing that God is faithful to do a mighty work in you!
Blessings to you as you journey on and seek to glorify God in all you do.
