Proverbs 3: 21-26 Safe and Secure?

21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment,

do not let them out of your sight;

22 they will be life for you,

an ornament to grace your neck.

23 Then you will go on your way in safety,

and your foot will not stumble;

24 when you lie down, you will not be afraid;

when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

25 Have no fear of sudden disaster

or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,

26 for the LORD will be your confidence

and will keep your foot from being snared.

When faced with family ruin, sudden disasters, calamities, death or sickness, life suddenly seems to take a downward spiral. Trouble seems to follow more trouble and all hope seems to vanish.

Many times looking back, we realize that a lot of trouble we face in life could have been avoided, if we had just been a little wiser or a little cautious. Unfortunately, most of us learn things the hard way.

Then again, if we look at the life of Job, we see that not all disaster can be avoided by being wise. What then is the use of all righteousness and wisdom if it can’t give you a guarantee against bad things happening to you? This is the part where I always seem to have a problem with Proverbs. It seems to put things in a cut and dried manner- Good will happen to those who are good and bad to those who are bad. And when I look about me all I see is the opposite happening.

It’s easy to question the truth of these words. Even King Solomon in all his wisdom found this a though question to answer. (Read Ecclesiastes) So what then must we conclude?

I found that the answer to this question is not learned easily. It needs to be experienced to actually say with confidence that the LORD will keep me from all harm and disaster. I am thankful that the Lord taught me at a young age that he is true to his promises. When my family went through a time of crisis, at a time when we had lost almost everything, the Lord showed us his mercy and carried us through, and although we never recovered all the material things that we lost, we as a family gained a lot more in spiritual wisdom, more than any book would have taught us.

Looking back these are the things I learned:

1) A lot of time trouble can avoided if we are not so naive about how the wicked and unjust the world really is. The truth is that there are people out there who will always wish you harm. Hence the need for “sound judgment and discernment.”

2) Even though we went through tough times the Lord never let us down. When we were foolish, we learned to depend more on HIS Wisdom rather than ours.

3) Evil may seem to win but that will not last forever. If you count you loss or trouble in terms of material wealth or blessing, it will always seem that the bad guys always win.

4) A person who trusts in the Lord need not have anything to fear, no matter how bad the situation seems to look at the moment, it will always bring forth blessing you may never have imagined.

Trust is the most important thing, sometimes it easy to doubt. Faith is built one step and one day at a time. It’s only when we look back that we realize how far we have really come.