Join Charles Stanley in an insightful exploration of Proverbs chapter 3 and uncover the essential elements of living a life that truly matters. From the pillars of trust and faith to the soothing blend of kindness and truth, this episode unravels the secret to tapping into divine guidance. Learn how to align your decisions with God’s will, navigate life’s obstacles with grace, and find contentment amidst life’s storms. Be inspired to hold fast to the wisdom in God’s Word as your ultimate source of direction and security.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, October 2nd. The third chapter of Proverbs describes some of the benefits of exercising godly wisdom. Listen closely to this podcast and be encouraged to love the Lord, to trust, obey, and anticipate His blessing.
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Do you want your life to be fruitful and feeling fulfilled and contented? And somehow, in spite of all the difficulties and obstacles you have to face in life, you want to be able to sense a sense of contentment in your life and the fact that your life’s really counted. You haven’t wasted it, hasn’t just flown by, but you really want your life to count. You want to make a difference, not only in your own life, but somebody else’s life. Well, there’s a way to do that, and I think most people just sort of get a little discouraged in life and ask the question, well, what difference do I make anyway? Or how can my life count for anything that has any lasting value? And the truth is it can. And the passage of Scripture that I want to talk about today is a passage of Scripture that has served as two instruments in my life. One of them… is an anchor that has anchored me in times of great difficulty and stormy times in my life. And the second is this, it served as a compass to give me a sense of direction, to show me which way to go, which way to turn. And so many times throughout these years, I’ve turned to this passage of Scripture. In fact, Very few days go by that I don’t either quote this passage to myself or read it in the Word of God, going back to ask for a sense of direction or having Him to anchor my soul in some troubled spirit, whatever it might be. It’s always there, always trustworthy. It is an awesome, powerful passage of Scripture. And I want to share it with you because I do know in my heart that if you allow it to be the compass of your life and the anchor of your life, things will get better in your life no matter what’s going on. You may say, well, you just don’t know how bad things are. It doesn’t make any difference how bad they are. This much I know. When you have God’s perfect eternal compass in your hand, And you have God’s absolute perfect promise of direction and guidance for your life. And your life is anchored to the rock that is immovable, unchangeable, unalterable, whether the winds blow, the storms blow against you, whether the water rises or the fire comes at you. These two verses of Scripture will see you through no matter what. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3, and I want us to read the first 12 verses because these two verses that I’m referring to, these two verses are the heart of this whole passage, but I want us to deal with the whole passage. He begins by saying, my son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good repute or good report in the sight of God and of man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your bats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof. For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as the Father, the Son, in whom He delights. When I think about the pathway that is fruitful and fulfilling and contenting and a pathway that will one day lead us to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and amidst our failures and amidst our faults and amidst all of our difficulties in life, he will be able to say to us, well done, good and faithful servants. You’ve been faithful over a few things. I will give you a position that deals with many. And so we talk about a life of fulfillment and contentment and one that is fruitful and not wasted. Here in one passage of Scripture, it’s all there. And so I want to begin with what I believe is the first and most important truth along this pathway. Because this pathway that leads to a life of fulfillment and contentment and fruitfulness begins, listen, with this simple truth. And that is, this kind of life involves fulfillment. treasuring God’s word in your heart, treasuring God’s word in your heart. What do I mean by treasure? I mean, you place high, high value on the word of God. Listen to what he says. He begins by saying, my son, do not forget my teaching. Why would he say do not forget it? And so often he warns us about forgetfulness because God knows how prone we are to forget. Listen to what he says. He says, my son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments. Length of days and years of life and peace they’ll add to you. Now, what does he mean by that? Does he mean that if you and I go and live by his principles in our life, does that mean that we’re going to live longer than people who do not? Does it mean that somehow we can rest assured and have the promise of a very, very long life, 75, 80, 90 years of age? Well, it’s very evident that’s not what it means because all of us know some very, very godly people who do not live a long life necessarily. So what does it mean? Remember what we said, we’re talking about a life, listen, a life that is fruitful. We’re talking about what are those things involved in a life that is fruitful? Certainly one of those things involved in a life that is fruitful is treasuring God’s word. That is, it is so valuable. I not only want it in my heart and in my mind, I want it as a guide to my life. And so therefore he’s not talking about the fact that everybody who lives a godly life will outlive those who are ungodly, but he does mean this. God, listen, will so guide us to fill our days with things that count in life, things that have value in life. We will not waste time, but our life will be full. It’ll be full of those things that really make a difference. And so many people live their lives. They just sort of go through the day. They go through the week. They have nothing to really look back and say, well, this was a valuable part of my day or my time. They’re just sort of getting along to the weekend so they can get through the weekend and enjoy that. So they can get back to their labors during the week. And he says, if you and I will live by his principles, he says he will lengthen our days. He will stretch them so to the point that you and I can accomplish more. Not only our days, but our years. And so the promise of God is this. I will become involved in your days. I will become involved in your years so that, listen, I will stretch them, so to speak, as far as the fruitfulness of your life. You know what that means? You and I will be able to accomplish more in walking in God’s will by his principles in a given day than people who do not. He will lengthen our days when we have our goals that are clear. We have our sense of direction that is clear. And we’re listening to God following his principles. Listen, sometimes those days will be jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, crammed full of events that make a real difference in our life. All of them will not be that way. That doesn’t mean those days are wasted because refreshment of our soul. recreation and rest are very essential. What he’s simply saying is this. He said, look, you want a life that’s fruitful? He said, don’t forget my commandments. Supply them to your heart. Here’s what you can expect. He says, I’ll fill your life up with things that really make a difference. So number two, listen to what he says. Verse three, he says, do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them about your neck. write them on the tablet of your heart, so you’ll find favor and good repute or good report in the sight of God and man.” Now, why would he mix kindness and truth? He says, don’t let kindness and truth leave you, but he says, put them around your neck on the table of your heart. Well, truth, for example, we all want to know the truth. The truth is what the Bible says. It sets us free in life to live this life that is fruitful and fulfilling. So we all want the truth, but we all have to agree that sometimes we don’t like the truth. Sometimes we’re confronted with a truth that is rather threatening to us. Sometimes the truth runs against the grain of our life. Sometimes the truth causes us to have to face things in life we don’t like to face. Sometimes the truth exposes our feelings and our attitudes in such ways we don’t like. Sometimes truth is just downright painful. And sometimes it’s sort of hurtful. And sometimes it comes from a sense of direction that we don’t like. So what has God done in this passage? He says, don’t let kindness and truth depart from you. Kindness soothes very difficult truth. And see, if you and I are going to relate to people, learn how to relate to them, and our life is going to be fruitful and contenting and helpful to other people, we have to learn how to speak the truth in kindness. He says, don’t let them get away from you. He says, bind them about your neck. And he says, be sure, listen to this, what he says, I love how he says it. He says, and so write them on the tablet of your heart. which is his way of saying, let truth and kindness so rule you that you do not allow your emotions to so overcome you and overwhelm you that you foul up your relationships. And so if I’m gonna have that kind of life, then I have to realize that I have to treat people kindly and treat them with the truth. Now, he does not mean that we are to just compromise everything and have no conviction about anything, but we are to live with integrity. We are to live with honesty. and we should be characterized by kindness. Now, you say, well, sometimes I don’t feel very kind. Well, everybody has that at times, but listen to what he says. The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and gentleness and kindness and so forth, self-control. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, so that sometimes we just have to say, now, Lord, you’re going to have to respond through me. You know what my naturalness feels, God, but I want you to respond through me. And so, He’s simply saying this, that if our life is going to be fruitful, we have to learn how to relate to people. And part of that is with kindness and with truth. And if you can just remember, when you mix those two, someone can come to you with very, very tough truth. But if it is spoken in the spirit of kindness and in the heart of kindness, it makes it much more acceptable. And so that’s what he’s really saying here. He’s saying, don’t let these overcome you because if you do, he says, you’re going to have a problem. And listen to what he says. He says, so you’ll find favor and good report in the sight of God and man. That is, somebody may not like you. They may not like what you do or what you believe or the way you go about it. But you know what? If you and I are kind, we can speak the truth. And they may not like us, not like our doctrine. They don’t like the way we go about things. But there’s one thing about it. When he says there’ll be good report, at least acknowledge that at least they honor and respect your personhood is that you’re kind. Kindness disarms a person. In fact… In the Living Bible translation, I think it’s the 19th chapter, 22nd verse, here’s what it says. It says, kindness makes a man attractive. You and I are drawn toward kindness. We’re not drawn toward rudeness, crudeness, harshness. And so he says, don’t let kindness and truth depart from you. Write them up on the tablet of your heart. Put them around your neck. That is, keep them close to you so that that’s the way you and I respond to the circumstances of life. All right, look what he says beginning now in verse 5. And this is the core of this passage, and we’ll come back to it later. But listen. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him. And he says he will do what? He will direct your path. Trust in the Lord. Rely upon him. Be confident in Him. Believe what He says. Trust in the Lord, He says, with all your heart. Now, people oftentimes do not because why? Well, first of all, they trust in their own limited intellect. Now, some people think they have a vast intellect. It’s very limited, no matter who they are. They trust in their own intellect. They trust in their possessions. They trust in their position. They trust in their authority. They trust in all kinds of things. He says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. That is, you can’t trust in your material possessions or your position in life. Now, the reason people do oftentimes is because they’re ignorant. That is, so many people do not have any earthly idea that God Almighty, who is the creator of the ends of the earth, is personally interested, personally involved in every single one of our lives. So therefore… Because he’s personally involved, I can trust him. Because he loves us unconditionally, I can trust him. Because he only has the best for us, I can trust him. Because he has the best plan and the best will, and because he’s willing to assume full responsibility for my life if I give it to him, I can absolutely trust him without any doubt whatsoever. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Now, what’s the scope of this trust? It isn’t trust him only in finances or trust him only in difficult times. He says, trust him with all your heart. That is, listen, everything that involves our heart, everything that we feel emotional about, everything that we think about, all the decisions we have to make, trust the Lord with all your heart. You see, somebody says, well, do you trust God? Well, sort of. Now listen, you can’t trust God sort of. What that means is, I trust him and I don’t trust him. That is, I believe him today, I’m doubting him in a few moments, and so there’s no such thing as that. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. That is complete trust. So think about this for a moment. Can you legitimately name one single reason for not placing your full trust in omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, unconditional, loving God who’s planned the best for you. Can you think of a single reason not to trust him? No, you cannot. It’s foolish not to trust him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean to your own understanding. Twice he warns us. Look at this. Look, if you will, in verse 5. Do not lean on your own understanding. Verse 7. Do not be wise in your own eyes. That is, we can’t afford just to lean on our own understanding because, listen, you and I can get all the facts that are possible for us to receive about any decision that we are making. And life is a decision-making process from the very earliest years of our life to the present moment. It’s decision after decision after decision. If I’m going to walk on God’s path, I’ve got to make wise decisions. If I’m going to make wise decisions, I cannot lean on my own understanding. Well, it’s limited. No matter how smart you are, how intelligent you are, no matter how many facts, how much truth you know, our understanding is limited. Only God has the full picture. But if you and I are believers and we have an intimate relationship with Him, and we, listen, we are locked in. Listen, we are locked in and tied in to infinite wisdom. unconditional love, absolute faithfulness, total reliability. Why should I not live every moment of my day either conscious or subconsciously aware that I’m walking in the presence of God, I’m making decisions according to the will of God, I want to know His way, I want to know His will, I want to walk in it because I’ve learned that it is absolutely the wisest thing to do, not most of the time, but every single time. Don’t lean on your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. That is in every single aspect of our life, we’re to come to him. Lord, what would you have me to do? What is your goal in this? What is your purpose for this? What’s the next thing I’m to do here? How am I to say this? What about your decision here? I think about people who go into business with partners and never ask God about it. I think about people who make financial decisions, never ask God. How can you make awesome big decisions and leave out the big decision maker who knows all the facts? Because sometimes he’s going to say no, and everything in our reason says yes, but when God says no, you better take what you can’t figure out and obey him because in all thy ways acknowledge him, he’ll make your path straight. I think the King James says he will direct your path, the same thing. One thing about it, God doesn’t make, isn’t, he never directs crooked paths. Straight to the will of God, straight to the purpose of God, straight to the goal of God. So now, why would he say make our path straight? Well, let’s think about it. A straight path saves me time. I can either go straight for one mile or I can take a crooked mile. Straight. If I take, in other words, if that’s my destination over there, and it’s five miles away, and I take a straight path, I’ll get there at a certain length of time if I travel a certain speed. But if that’s my goal, and I decide, you know, I’m going over yonder, and I’m going to take a little dip over here, it may take me four times as long to get there. So first of all, it saves time. Walking in the will of God saves time. Secondly, it saves energy. When he says make our path straight, God doesn’t want us wasting time. He doesn’t want us wasting resources. He doesn’t want us wasting energy. God is, so to speak, he’s our co-pilot. The truth is he’s the real pilot. That is, he’s with us. He wants us to take the straight path. He knows the goal he’s set for your life. He knows what he wants you to accomplish. He knows where he wants you to be. Now listen to this. God will get you where he wants you to be in spite of every single obstacle along the way, no matter what. And I think if there’s one thing I have seen God do in my own life, I’ve seen him take me and put me in places that I could never have gotten to. Didn’t even know I was supposed to be there, number one. And in spite of all the obstacles and all the hardships and all the difficulties, God knows how to take you where you are, put you where he wants you, no matter what. Because remember this. He assumes full responsibility for the consequences of your decision when that decision is based on the principles of the Word of God and you’re obeying Him. Therefore, in every single one of our paths, there are going to be obstacles. So what am I to do? Fight the obstacles? No. I’m to look to the God who set the path. I’m to trust Him who allowed the obstacle to either remove the obstacle, show me how to get around it, go over it, under it, or whatever it might be. God will remove that obstacle to the degree that it will not hinder. It cannot impede. It cannot obstruct you from reaching the goals, the purposes God has for your life.
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Thank you for listening to God’s Guide to a Fruitful Life. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
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