Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Proverbs 28



"God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him." Proverbs 28:9 The Message

What is it to listen to God?

To obey the principles of the Bible, for sure, like loving God with all of our hearts and minds and loving our neighbors as ourselves, but I do believe God speaks to me. Not in an out-loud voice, but more of an internal dialogue, and sometimes I wonder if it's real, or the hyper-imaginative writer in me.

I mean I want to listen to God. I want to do what he prompts me to do, but no matter how much I believe I hear him, the only real guide I have for my behavior is the Bible. If what God "tells" me to do is contrary to what the Bible says, the voice I hear in my mind cannot be God, but my own.

Another verse in this chapter read, "If you desert God's law, you're free to embrace depravity." (Proverbs 28:4 The Message.) It reminds me of Isiah 5:20, where a culture had rejected God's laws. Without a firm foundation in the Bible, we don't know what is right and what is wrong, and often reverse the two. "Call good things evil, and evil things good."

I do believe God speaks to me, that we have a two-way communication, and I do try to do what he asks of me, but I always have to balance what I think I'm being told with the scripture, because I don't want to be "talking" to him, only to do what is contrary to what is good for me and those around me.

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