Living in Confidence – In Jesus!

“Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart to my knowlledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall be altogether fitted on thy lips. That thy confidence may be in Jehovah, I have made them known to thee this day, even to thee.” Proverbs 22:17-19 (Darby)

We have been working with this passage for several weeks and I am continuing to be caught by its truth. It is in a bit of a different form as well as version today. As to form I am using my iPad with an unfamiliar keyboard. Hence all the tools that are normally available to me are not yet discovered. I am certain they are here, but I must spend some time to discover them in this program. As to the version, it is by J.N. Darby who completed his work in 1890. I enjoy reading it as it has many Hebrew and Greek helps in his notes. So I have chosen to use it as I write our letter. It is Friday morning and very, very cold outside. I am sitting in my easy chair in the bedroom with an extra heater going so my feet can stay comfortably warm. Such are the joys of living in Central NY this winter.
Our understanding of the above passage continues to unfold. The reason the writer wants us to incline our ear and hear the words of wisdom, then to apply to our heart knowledge is because when we do so our inward man is exposed to things that are exceedingly thought-worthy and pleasant and then they will be “fitted” to our lips. We will begin to speak them, not so much as quotes, but as our own processed thoughts. But wait, there is more! All of this has been so that we will take great confidence (trust) in the Lord. I am reminded of Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” So not only does the sayings and knowledge of the words of the wise make me a wise person, but they also give me faith – confidence in our Father!
So we all need to be deep students of the Word. If we want our words to mean something and we want deeper faith/trust to take “walk on water” confidence in the Lord, we need to be thinking on His wisdom. I know we are all busy, but many times we all want the best of life from the Lord and we want to say meaningful things, but we give little more than lip service to His marvelous Word. Lord we place ourselves before you to be a willing student of your heart – your Word. Thank you for the printed page, and we see you as you manifest yourself to us through and in the pages – then unfolded from the Sacred Page into our life shared intimately with you. Thank you