Let Us Not Be the Foolish Man
“There is desirable treasure, and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.” (Proverbs 21:20)
As I age, the words of one my spiritual fathers, Bo Adkison, mean more and more to me.
Don’t take up others’ offenses
Don’t let Satan steal your joy
Finish well
I was once a part of a group that he led. All of us were men in whom he saw spiritual leadership. These three things were his answer when one of us asked him what he thought most important for a sound spiritual life.
The Lord will often remind me of these – especially #3 – “Finish well.” When He does, I can hear Brother Bo’s deep, rich, slow East Texas accent saying it.
“Finish well.”
“There is desirable treasure, and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.” (Proverbs 21:20 - NKJV)
I would like to loosely paraphrase this verse using the meanings of the Hebrew words in the verse:
“The lives of wise people are depositories of treasures and riches, but a foolish man devours and destroys those in his life.” (Mike’s Version)
Let’s look around at the riches we have in our lives.
EVERYONE has these, no matter how humble are our lives and no matter what is going wrong in our lives.
We ALL have some riches.
Often, these riches are the people God has granted to be in our lives.
As we read today’s Proverb and think about Brother Bo’s encouragement that we “Finish well” let’s resolve to do well with what we have.
Let’s be aware of the fears that might still reside within our “souls in progress”, the strongholds placed there by an enemy who hates us to steal our riches from us, and the stresses of daily life. Let’s resolve to not allow those to cause us to devour and destroy the riches God has granted to us.
Let’s not be the foolish man.
“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (Galatians 5:14-15)
This is how the foolish man devours his riches: he cannibalizes the souls of those in his house…..sometimes even his own.
Let’s not be like the foolish man.
Let’s, instead, love those nearest to us (the literal definition of the word “neighbor”.
Let’s each commit to “Finish well.”
Pastor Mike McInerney
Mike McInerney Ministries, Inc.
Decatur, Texas
© August 21, 2017
(For use with permission)