So…Proverbs. I’ve become completely besotted with this book over the past few months. Prior to these past few months however, if you were to ask me to pick the book I thought was most boring in all the Bible, I would have probably picked Proverbs. I know, I know…I’m not supposed dislike a book of the Bible, but I did. I thought it was boring and painstakingly obvious. How dismally wrong I was. It started when I was flipping through to another book in the Bible, and happened to fall on the last page of the book of Proverbs. I noticed that Proverbs had 31 chapters. Hey! I could read a chapter of Proverbs every day and finish the book in a month! Neat! Which,when I relayed this revelation to friends, they promptly informed me that the entire Christian community has known this fact, well, ever since chapters were assigned to Proverbs. So I’m a little late to the train station….but if I maybe permitted to put in an advert here for Proverbs, I highly recommend reading a chapter, or some portion of it everyday. You won’t regret it.

First chapter starts off straightaway with saying the book will teach you wisdom. What?! Okay, sign me up. Again, painstakingly obvious, but it was a truth that I had clearly missed when I made my silent judgment that Proverbs was a dreary book. So, I can learn wisdom. I dug in with a fury. But around chapter six, I found myself bored stiff, and quite frankly, irritated that all it had really talked about in all the chapters up until now, was how to avoid an adulterous woman. To be sure, one should guard themselves against adulterous relationships, but Proverbs was specifically talking to men on how to avoid adulterous women. So I was a little peeved. God, I prayed, I refuse to accept that you had Solomon write a book for all the generations to follow, but that only applies to half the population. What else are you saying here? And what are you saying to me?

Now, I firmly believe everything in the Bible means something, even if previously I had kind of always skipped over Proverbs. But now that I was in Proverbs, I was in it. I like to think of myself like that irritating guy Jacob, you know in Genesis 32:26, who wrestles with God. And of all the nerve, he tells God, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” That is how I approach scripture, God, I am NOT letting go, until you explain this to me. Sometimes the answer comes immediately. Sometimes after a couple hours or days. Sometimes not till after a couple months. Sometimes it is simply time I need as I mull it over and pray and ask God what it means and read it again, and think on it daily. But God is faithful, and he has never not answered my questions when it comes to His Word. Whenever you read something that you don’t understand in the Bible, tell God you’re not letting go. He LOVES it when you tell Him that, because He loves to give His kids answers.

In this particular instance, God answered me over the next few moments. Before I even completely finished my thought/prayer, I was promptly presented with a glimmer of a thought. – Idolatry. Idolatry? That seems a bit off track… Okay, how did that commandment read, anyway? Wasn’t it the first commandment? I am the Lord your God….Do not have any other gods before me (Exodus 20:2-3). So, anything that I place as more important than God, is considered worshipping other gods, or idolatry.

Idolatry. Got it. That’s still not adultery…but there was something else I was missing, but it felt so close. – Church. Church? Okay, I am part of the Church….and the Church is the bride of Christ…..and if I were to hold any relationship as higher than my relationship with Christ, couldn’t that idolatry be considered as adultery? There it was! All of the adulterous verses could also be talking about me turning away from my relationship with God, or holding something as more important than my relationship with God, or as more important than what God’s Word says about me, or the purposes He has called me to. So then I dug back into the idea of idolatry, to get a handle on how to read the “adulterous woman” verses in context with idolatry and placing anything above God.

Any opinion that I have of myself that I hold above God’s knowledge, or what God says in His Word (2 Corinthians 10:5) – that is idolatry. When I feel like a failure, but God has called me a priest and king in His kingdom (Revelation 1:6) – that is idolatry. When I feel unloved and alone, God says I am beloved (1 John 3:1) and that He would never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5) – that is idolatry. When I feel like my job position is the only thing that can give me fulfillment and purpose in life, but God says I find my purpose in Him and in seeking His kingdom first (Matthew 6:33-34) – that is idolatry. Anything in that category, that I hold as more valuable than what God’s Word says, or that I deem as more valuable than God and my relationship with Him, is idolatry. Or to put it in context with Proverbs – adultery.

So, I started reading all the adultery verses in context with the voices that try to rise up against my knowledge of God.

Proverbs 5:3-6 – “Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol. She doesn’t consider the path of life; she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.”

Silence. I was gutted. The Bible had read me. Yeah that job position was so enticing looking. And called sweet words. But when I set my heart on that and not God, and then when I didn’t get that position, my, was it bitter. Sharp like a double edged sword, it cut me to the heart. I turned on myself, and my self-talk turned bitter – telling myself I was useless and of no value, simply because I didn’t get the position. I strung up so much hope and self worth in it. All my ways and thoughts were unstable because I had looked to a silly job position for self-worth, and not God.

Verse after adultery verse, God showed me certain things in my life that I had looked to and held above His knowledge. God, help me get my mind on the right track. I can’t do it alone. Where do I start? Just before these verses, in Proverbs 5:1-2, God gives this instruction, a replacement action to do instead of where my head wants to take me – “My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge.” Okay that’s where I start – how to stay away from the adulterous woman, that idolatrous thing that lures me away from my first truelove – God. I pay attention and listen closely to the wisdom of the Word, and finally, I speak it. I have to get it on my lips. The more I talk about the Word, and repeat it, the more it gets into my bones and becomes a part of me. It starts to become my reflex response when things don’t go my way and puts my focus back on God.

I kept reading. In Proverbs 5:7-8, God gives more instruction:

“So now, sons, listen to me, and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth. Keep your way far from her. Don’t go near the door of her house.” All of Proverbs can be used to direct my attention away from the things that try to lure my thoughts away from God and to desires that I haven’t submitted to Him. I, you – we – can replace those thoughts with verses from Proverbs, or any verse in the Bible for that matter. The key is paying attention to the words of Truth and not turning away from them.

Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24). That is my prayer every day before I begin reading Proverbs. And God has answered in such big ways. It’s certainly stung a little bit, but in a good way. In an empowering way. God doesn’t just leave me with how I need do better, He shows me how to do it, and then gives me the strength to do it. He lifted me up out of my dark thinking, told me I was loved and valuable, put me on the right path, and gave me the power to not get sucked into that way of thinking.

My prayer for you is the same. I pray God will help you search your heart to find what He can call into the light in your life. And that He will lead you in His way, a way that will never end. There is so much freedom and strength in His Word and in the life He has for you, because He values you. I thank God for you, and also pray you would gain a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God (Ephesians 1:17), so that you will not lift up your own opinions of yourself above what God says about you. You have so much value and worth, friend.

Until next time,

– Just a girl pursuing her reflection in the mirror of God’s Word.