On Being Secure…

 Wisdom calls aloud outside;

She raises her voice in the open squares.

She cries out in the chief concourses,

At the openings of the gates in the city

She speaks her words:

"How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?

For scorners delight in their scorning,

And fools hate knowledge.

Turn at my rebuke;

Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;

I will make my words known to you.

Because I have called and you refused,

I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,

Because you disdained all my counsel,

And would have none of my rebuke,

I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your terror comes,

When your terror comes like a storm,

And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,

When distress and anguish come upon you.

"Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

Because they hated knowledge

And did not choose the fear of the LORD,

They would have none of my counsel

And despised my every rebuke.

Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,

And be filled to the full with their own fancies.

For the turning away of the simple will slay them,

And the complacency of fools will destroy them;

But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,

And will be secure, without fear of evil."—Proverbs 1:20-33

As I read these verses this morning from Proverbs 1, I was overwhelmed with grief for those people I care for that seem to hate knowledge and do not choose to fear the Lord. Even as I write this they are, as it says in verse 31, eating the fruit of their own way and being filled with their own fancies.  

Beloved…may we join together in prayer this morning and every morning for our loved ones that they would come to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. That we would pray for them in agreement with Jesus, who in John 17, not only prayed for those that were with Him at that time, but also for those who would believe later on…you and me. 

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.—John 17:20-23

Oh, Father…Pour out Your Spirit and make Your word known to them.  Oh, that they, even today, would turn at Your rebuke and listen to You, for then will they dwell safely and be secure, without fear of evil. 

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,—Ephesians 1:17-20