The Wise Answer
"My son, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you], That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation]."
These two verses from the beginning of Proverbs 5 were targeted towards fidelity in marriage, but we can glean the life-giving words from them in respect to our finances and overspending as well.
In the same manner that God declares He knows the end from the beginning in the macro-sense for all of history (Isaiah 46:10), He also knows what is result for us individually when we obey or disobey Him. That is why He can state that the wise person will have precious treasures in their dwelling place and the self-confident and foolish person will not, as they have wasted what they had. (Proverbs 21:20)
The Amplified Bible illuminates it well in the beginning of the opening verse above, where it says "godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience". We can all relate to this in our past spending... when we, through early ignorance or not heeding wisdom, made costly mistakes with our finances. Perhaps we made a very large purchase without researching the value of it, jumped at a offer without reasoning inside if we really needed to have it, or through many undisciplined discretionary purchases over time plowed ourselves under into substantial debt.
I experienced a reckoning with my gap in this area many years ago, and what broke the chain to overspending in certain areas resulted from a single Post-it Note. I wrote down every expense I made over the course of a couple weeks. When I looked back on that note it was like an X-ray that showed what was beneath the surface of my sight, for it showed exactly how much I really spent in those categories, not what I thought I did. I made some changes from that point forward that stuck and the result was not spending more than I made.
But in the very next words of that verse, God shows us His path - "incline your ear to my understanding". What is God's understanding in this area? Spoken in Romans 13:8 for us to "Keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another". His desire for us is to not suffer this stress of debt and to progressively shed our households of this burden.
If you're serious about shedding your debts for good, I encourage you to take one of two steps - view the Debt-Free & Prosperous Living seminar that was recorded in July at the church when taught by my wife Karen and I, or sign up for a future class. This 3-hour class will be the best investment of your time you can make, as you will receive a proven path to removing your debts along with loads of encouragement and supporting scriptures. Please contact the church for either option.
Now, looking to the last portion of the opening verses, "That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation]." There's two parts to reaping the good result of this, and we'll address it in opposite order.
We can receive the wise answer to temptation from the Holy Spirit. In John 14, God's Holy Spirit is called our Counselor. He is ever present with you. When the noise is audible to buy something sizeable or enter into an agreement, turn your inner ear to the Holy Spirit, who will bring to remembrance all you have learned, He will always agree with the Word of God and His trademark is we will be led forth with peace.
Having said that, what seems to be the most important piece to being enriched and benefitting from the Holy Spirit as mentioned above?
The Word of God
For Him to bring remembrance to what we learned, we must be learning... continually and on our own - not limited to just what is spoken to us in a sermon. As Pastor Aaron has mentioned, we need this "fuel" to sustain ourselves in the right path, this fuel is to be absorbed daily because the challenges of life come at us daily. We've never lived in a more advantageous time to receive God's Word in so many ways (print, audio, computer, device), it just requires our desire to have it.
Even if you are not in a place to receive via print or technology, you can have what David wrote in Psalms 119:15... "I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways". From what we've read and learned, we can "reach out and borrow" them again and again to be enriched, enlightened and strengthened as we do. We can also ponder these words more carefully, allowing God to bring deeper revelations to us.
And because the Spirit will always agree with the Word of God, we must have that Word in us to understand His voice properly. It is really like learning a new language, and to comprehend we need to get the "vocabulary" of it into our minds and hearts.
In closing, be encouraged from the writings of Proverbs 24:13-14:
My son, eat honey, because it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. So shall you know skillful and godly Widsom to be thus in your life; if you find it, then shall there be a future and a reward, and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.
God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,
Paul
