Proverbs 4:9-10 

⁹ She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown. ¹⁰ Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.

Owner marries renter

It is never wrong; it is very proper to choose a desirable life. Undesirable life is punishment that nobody would like to have. How could we choose desirable life for us?

There was an Asian TV Show that featured an owner of a house and renter who agreed to get married with conditions to maintain their status as owner and renter. They had traditional wedding; relatives and friends attended. But in their house, the married couples have separate lives. The husband is still the owner of the house. The wife still paid half of the house rent to her husband and landlord. They sleep in separate rooms; they prepare and eat their own meal; and, they may ask or tell about their activities, but they do not care much about what the other person does. They agreed to do just that.

So, why did they agree to get marry if they do not live as traditional husband and wife? The husband had no plan to be married, but he was pressured by his mother to get a wife. So, he married his wife to clean his house and pay half the lodging rent. The wife agreed in such condition because she had no stable job. Their marriage suits their needs. The husband gets a wife who pays rent. The wife pays a room for half the price.

What does the Lord Jesus Christ teach about marriage? In Matthew 19:4-6 he stated, ⁴“Haven’t you read, that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Throughout the history of mankind, marriage had been interpreted according to their personal convenience. As long as they don’t break existing laws, they compromise for whatever may be acceptable to the society. Compromised marriage is their choice that seems to be very gratifying, but not necessarily beneficial to life in the long run.

Can you accept that our choices in life reveal the kind of slave we are? Biblically, we are either slave to sinfulness or slave to righteousness. If personal choices follow our natural instinct, we are slave to sinful nature. Human instinct is naturally sinful. But, if by faith in Christ we follow his instructions, we are slave to godly righteousness.

Naturally, we can be easily deceived when we rely upon our own human instinct. There are situations when we are easily attracted by what we see and assume as good. Godly wisdom helps us choose things beneficial to us and avoid things harmful to us.

By faith, we believe that the wisdom of King Solomon originated from God, and his advices come from God. We need godly wisdom to understand and personally trust that the Book of Proverbs contains godly advices for believers to choose desirable life.

How strong do you believe that your choices in life would benefit you favorably?

By godly wisdom, our choices in life may present us glorious splendor we cherish in life.

1.  Present

⁹She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.

We’ve learned that wisdom is described as “she” for her productive result. We are challenged to acquire godly wisdom at all cost even if it costs us everything we have. Humans are born envious. Envy is real; we just cannot deny it. What are you envious of lately? What do others have that you wish to acquire or attain in your life?

Envy can be positive, if it motivates us to strive for our betterment. With godly wisdom, we can also discern if things that we are envious of are beneficial in the long run or harmful to us. It is good to desire things that are beneficial to us. Can you agree?

Do you consciously ask yourself and ponder upon if what you want at the moment would be useful or harmful to you? Do you watch TV decisively or consciously? Have you ever had this experienced? You want to watch TV show; you get the remote control and just scroll down to search something that may attract your attention. And then someone told you, “Watch this show!” You watch it, and you find it amusing!

Online Show

Well, online videos are very beneficial to particular hobbies. If you love playing musical instruments, gardening, baking, cooking, painting, fishing, or doing different kind of repair works at home, you can easily find online show to watch and learn from.

Attractive online shows are very tempting and may cause anyone to waste time watching online shows that may not have relevance to life.  In social media, individuals would quickly share what they are watching online. If you are very sensitive, you would easily sense that what they share in social media reveal if they have wisdom or not.

Some pretend to be knowledgeable; they may hope to impress their subscribers. In reality, their personal preferences expose their choices as useless or harmful to them.

Wisdom “gives garland to grace your head and present you with glorious crown.” What do you understand? The “garland on your head” suggests remarkable attainment that only a select few can attain; additionally, the term, “glorious crown,” may pertain to exaltation or promotion to higher level over ordinary status, like crown to the king.

In short, wisdom is the key that opens greater opportunity than we may think of, and better than any plan we may formulate on our own personal effort. Do promotion to the next level and glorious splendor of no ordinary status attract you? Pay attention!

2.  Pay Attention

¹⁰ Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.

When a Scripture passage instructs us to “listen,” it requires attentiveness in us.

As adoptive children of God, we are required to pay attention to his instruction. He wants us to experience desirable life not miserable. Godly wisdom is instrumental to personally experience life beyond human capability. When the Lord invites us to accept what he says, he offers us options to choose. He does not insist; he does not force us to listen to him. We may choose to listen and take heed of his word, if we believe him.

Wisdom from God is first of all things that we should desire. Why? For us to have many years of life! The phrase, “years of life will be many,” suggests desirable life. It’s not necessary number of years, although, it’s possible. Biblically, years of life implies life we live that we cherish and want to reminisce as compared to easily forgotten life experiences that you wish to erase from memory and not want to remember if possible.

Barbeque night

A group of people had agreed to have “Barbeque night” and drank alcohol. A person who never drank alcohol got drank, vomited and puked. Another one opened up her feelings to the other person. Everyone got drank and did something they were very ashamed of when they remember what they did that night. The following days, everyone acted as if nothing happened during the barbeque night. It was a night they all wanted to forget.

Have you ever had plan of fun time, but later on you don’t want to remember it? You regretted that you attend such event. Everyone has undesirable life experiences.

Do you wish to forget any undesirable experience? How? It is human escape to forget terrible moments. Why does God allow them to happen? Listen: God wants us to trust him even when we are bothered by undesirable memories. When his Holy Spirit produces peace in us, unpleasant memories cannot haunt or bother us anymore when peace from God comforts us with tranquility and calmness of heart and mind.

 King David

It may not have been written specifically, but King David admitted that he had his share of undesirable shameful escapades in his younger years. He said in Psalm 25:4-11, ⁴Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. ⁵Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. ⁶Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. ⁷Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good. ⁸Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. ⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. ¹⁰All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. ¹¹For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Wisdom teaches us that if we admit our shameful sin before the Lord, he forgives us; and, we seek his help to guide us into path of truth. King David was considered the greatest king of Israel, and his life is very desirable to be envious of. Overcoming many obstacles and embarrassing situation is not ordinary accomplishment for anybody.

Seeking guidance and forgiveness of the Lord was an open secret of King David toward desirable greatness in his life. It is always wise to seek wisdom from the Lord.

Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to believers filled by his Holy Spirit.

Seriously pray for stronger faith in Christ and empowerment of his Holy Spirit; and your choices in life will be favorably beneficial to you practically and spiritually.

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