Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Practical Proverbs | The Writings | Proverbs 19

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Are you slow to anger? Are God's commands good for me? Are you missing out an eternal investment? In today's episode, Keith shares the wisdom behind a handful of practical proverbs in Proverbs 19. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Proverbs 19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I love the Proverbs because they show me the path to a good life. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, which is how many days most months have in them. So you might consider reading through one chapter of Proverbs per day for a month. When you read them, I suggest focusing on a few Proverbs in the chapter and thinking more deeply about them. That's what we're going to do today in chapter 19. We're going to choose a few Proverbs to think about. The first one is in verse 11.

It says, sensible people control their temper. They earn respect by overlooking wrongs. So the first part of this verse tells us that wise people keep their emotions under control. It's not saying that emotions are bad. It's just saying that we shouldn't be controlled by them. If we can't keep control of our anger, for example, we're going to damage a lot of people. The Proverbs tell us that anger leads us to say things. that are hurtful, things that we end up regretting. I think we've all been there. The New Testament

Book of James draws a lot from the book of Proverbs. And so in James chapter one, it says, My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Human anger doesn't have good outcomes. But maybe the most important reason to be slow to anger is because God is. Psalm 145 says, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and rich in love. Finally, the one who can keep his anger under control can be a peacemaker. Proverbs 15, a hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.

When you don't have your emotions under control, when you lose your temper, you stir up conflict, which leads to division and broken relationships, all of which displeased God. But if you can remain calm when things don't go your way, you can bring peace, you can bring reconciliation. Jesus said in the beatitudes that the peacemakers are called the sons of God because God himself is a peacemaker. So that's the first half of the verse. Let's read verse 11 again and this time focus on the second half.

Remember it says sensible people control their temper. They earn respect by overlooking wrongs. So the second half commends people who overlook wrongs. Let's think about all of our close relations. Whether it's marriage or a parent-child relationship or a coworker or a neighbor or somebody in a friend group. When two people are in a close relationship, they are inevitably going to be things that the person does that annoy you. Sometimes that person is even going to hurt you or wrong you in a significant way. So the proverb tells us that it is wise and loving to overlook wrongs.

The wise person doesn't make a big deal out of everything. You might say they pick their battles. I mean, if you pointed out everything your spouse or your friend or your coworker did wrong, that's all you'd talk about. I mean, after all, they are sinners, so it's not hard to find a sinner sinning. But imagine if they did that to you. Imagine if they pointed out everything you did wrong. See, there's a kind of grace that has to be extended between people who are friends, who

have a close relationship. You've got to overlook a lot. But, of course, you can't and shouldn't overlook everything. And Jesus tells us there are times when we are hurt. and that we need to go and confront someone. And there are times when we've hurt other people and we need to listen to them when they come and confront us. How do you know if an offense rises to the level

that you should talk to the other person about it? Now, I think that takes wisdom, and different people are going to come to different conclusions. But I think a good rule of thumb is if what they did or said stays with you and affects your relationship with them, then you need to talk to them about that issue. Like if you find yourself dwelling on it the next day,

If you find that you're withdrawing from the relationship or retaliating against them in some way, well, you need to talk to that person about the issue that's really affecting your relationship with them. But if it's a garden variety offense and you can quickly let it go, then do that. There will be plenty of big things that you need to discuss without bringing up every little thing. Here's another proverb we want us to think about today. It's verse 16, keep the commandments and keep your life. Despising them leads to death. So this proverb gets to the heart of what you think about God.

Does God want your happiness? Or is he withholding something good from you? Is his way and his will really the best for you? There's a tendency to see God's commandments as if they are burdensome, as if our life would be better if we could just do what we wanted. All this treating other people well, all this praying and serving others and showing mercy and forgiving people. Well, somehow we begin to think that living like God wants us to ruins our life.

that somehow our life would be better if we could harbor bitterness, if we could gossip or covet our neighbor's stuff, or if we could pursue whatever sexual pleasure we felt like at the moment. Somehow we've convinced ourselves that's the good life. But is that really true? Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus wants you to have the good life. And when you obey God's commands, like when you're generous or you put others' interest above your own or you forgive people. Aren't you really happier and more satisfied with your life? See, the proverb is right. Keeping the commandments of God leads to the good life. Let's consider Proverbs in 1917. If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord and he will

repay you. So this proverb is giving you God's investment advice. You might want to take it. Warren Buffett tells a story about a guy he was talking to when he was just getting started in the investment industry. This guy lived on the same street that Buffett did. And so one day Buffett sees him out playing with his five kids, and he asked the dad how he's going to pay for the college of all these kids. And the dad really had no idea. And so Buffett said, what if you gave me $10,000? I'll invest it for you.

And I promise that by the time your kids are ready to go to school, they will have the money they need to pay for their tuition. But the dad said, no way. He didn't know exactly what Buffett did, because remember he was just. just getting started in the industry. And there's no way he was going to give him $10,000. That was a lot of money. So Buffett goes on to tell the story that if that dad had given him the $10,000, he would have turned that eventually into $450 million. You see, the dad didn't realize who he was talking to. Warren Buffett is one of the world's great investors. Investing with Buffett is like a cheat code.

and you say to yourself, I will never miss out on investment like that. I'd always say yes to Warren Buffett's investment advice. But let's go back to our verse, verse 17. It says, whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he, meaning the Lord, will reward them for what they have done. So if you're kind to the poor, if you help them find a job or get transportation or find safe housing, if you help them with babysitting or maybe in paying a bill, you are investing with God and he will reward.

you. Don't miss out on an eternal investment because I promise that God's reward is greater than $450 million. Proverbs 1918 says, discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise, you will ruin their lives. This is counterintuitive advice because we think that the fun parent is the one who lets their kid do whatever they want. I mean, of course, within reason, but still the fun parent is the one who lets the kid get away with a lot. But this proverb tells us that the lack of discipline ruins your kids' life. Now, this isn't a parenting podcast, so we're not going to dive in on how to discipline, although I think that's really important topic for every parent to consider. But this is a Bible podcast. So I'll tell you that the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us that

God disciplines his children for our good. Even though his discipline is painful, it is always for our best. When we discipline our children, we should model it after God's discipline of us. So discipline isn't something that is done out of anger, not at all. God's discipline of us and our discipline of our children should be done out of love. Let's consider one more proverb. It's verse 21. It says you can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail. It's good to make plans, but hold all your plans loosely.

Because Proverbs 27 says, we don't know what tomorrow brings. I mean, isn't that the truth? When Paul makes his plans to visit other churches, he often says, if the Lord's will, then I will do this or that. In other words, Paul says, even when it comes to travel plans, I'm going to hold those loosely because I don't know what tomorrow brings. And therefore, I need to be open to what God has for me. This proverb reminds me that I need to hold all my plans loosely. I shouldn't be too confident about what I'm going to be doing tomorrow or what. what I'm going to be doing in my 30s or my 40s or my 50s,

I shouldn't be confident about any of that because I don't know what the future holds. Instead, I know the one who holds the future, and I know that my life is in his hands. His purposes will prevail. The reality is that your life is a mist. You are here today and gone tomorrow. You're not in charge of how long you live. You're not in control of all that much.

Instead, hold your life loosely and spend however many days God give you. you serving him. That way, you'll be ready to meet him.