Proverbs 4:26 AMP

 
The decisions and actions we have made over the years have been built upon decisions and actions we made each second, minute, day, week, and month of the prior years. What we do today, good or bad, will snowball into tomorrow. If we decide today to stop doing something we don’t like that we do everyday and start doing something we wish we did everyday, a new snowball is started. Tomorrow will take additional focus to continue the things we want to stop and start but as each day passes the focus it takes to maintain the changes will fade and become part of who we are.
 
Most of the things I do on daily biases that I wish I didn’t do started in the same way. The things I want to change about myself the most are the things that I have been doing the longest.
 
Our character and life is built by each thought, feeling, and action we have. God’s Little Devotional describes it like this…
 
Have you ever watched an icicle form’ Did you notice how the
dripping water froze, one drop at a time, until the icicle was a foot
long or more? If the water was clean, the icicle remained clear and
sparkled brightly in the sun; but if the water was slightly muddy, the
icicle looked cloudy, its beauty spoiled. Our character is formed in
like manner. Each thought or feeling adds its influence. Each
decision we make – both great and small – contributes its part.
Everything we take into our minds and souls – impressions, experiences,
images, or words – helps create our character. At all times, we must be
aware of the “droplets” we allow to drip into our lives. Acts that
develop habits of hate, falsehood, and evil intent mar and eventually
destroy us–but habits born of love, truth, and goodness silently mold
and fashion us into the image of God. [God's Little Devotional
Bible]
 
What would you like to stop or start? That cloud that hangs over your head everyday would be a good choice for starters. That thing that you know God wants you to change, and change now. It’s the one thing you want to change about yourself but you don’t think you can or have been unable to. But with following this Proverb and asking God to help you everyday, you will!
Chris Riehl
 

Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Proverbs 4:26 KJV

 
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Proverbs 11:2 CEV

The worst thing you can have is pride. It will cost you more than anything else. Conceit will deceive you into folly, which will quickly and surely shame you. But humility leads to wisdom, which protects men from foolish mistakes and the resulting shame. Dear reader, do you grasp the importance of this lesson?
You will never hear or read a more important warning for your life! Never! Pride will destroy you, but it will destroy you disgracefully and shamefully before all men.

A fool is a horrible thing, as Solomon often taught. But there is something worse than a fool – a proud fool! He said, “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him” (26:12). There is little hope for a fool, but there is no hope for a proud fool. His arrogance will not allow instruction or correction.

Pride blinds men. They cannot perceive wisdom to avoid trouble and shame. They resent being taught or corrected by others. They are confident! They arrogantly rush on in their high opinions of their own thoughts and ideas. Pride brings folly, which brings shame. Dear reader…hate pride! Fear the Lord! “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (8:13).

Pride is a heinous evil. It began with the devil. It caused Satan’s downfall. Lucifer was not content as God’s anointed cherub; he wanted to be like the most High (Ezek 28:14; Is 14:14). So God threw him out of heaven to his everlasting shame (John 12:31; Rev 12:9,12). The smoke of his torment will be heaven’s incense (Matt 25:41; Rev 14:11).

Dear reader, do you hate it yet? Pride is the devil’s sin! Pride ruined the glorious life of the universe’s highest creature! Pride caused his everlasting shame and torment! Pride is the worst thing you can have in your life! It will cost you more than anything else! Ministers cannot have any of his pride or self-will (I Tim 3:6; Tit 1:7), for it will cause them to run amok in the work of their office. Teachers and rulers must first be humble enough to learn from others and examine themselves critically, before they should be put in a position to teach and examine others (I Tim 4:16; II Tim 2:15).

Due to pride, Pharaoh, the greatest king of that time, destroyed himself, his family, his nation, and his army (Ex 5:2). And men have laughed at his destruction and shame for the last 3500 years (Ex 15:1-21; I Sam 4:8; 6:6; Neh 9:10; Ps 136:9,15; Rom 9:17)! Even children rejoice and laugh at the frogs in Pharaoh’s bed and bread (Ex 8:3)!

Due to pride, the Philistines fought against Israel, in spite of remembering what God had done to Egypt 500 years earlier (I Sam 4:7-9). After capturing the ark of God, they put it before their idol Dagon, which fell down and worshipped it (I Sam 5:1-5)! God then gave the whole nation an epidemic of hemorrhoids, and the only way they could find relief was to return the ark with five golden hemorrhoids as a peace offering (I Sam 6:1-5)!

Consider their shame! The whole nation scratched their secret parts (I Sam 5:9), and there was no Preparation H! Their only relief was to mold five golden hemorrhoids! God laughed at their shame! He inspired Psalm 78:66 for this event, which rejoices, “And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.” Indeed! They were put to perpetual shame for pride! What a peace offering! Who modeled for them!

Due to pride, Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest and most glorious king of all time, spent seven years crawling around a field on his hands and knees! He ate grass like an ox; his hairs grew out like eagle feathers; and his nails grew out like bird claws (Dan 4:33)! And he wrote the whole story down and sent it to his entire kingdom (Dan 4:1-3)! What trouble! What shame! And all because of pride (Dan 4:30-31)!

Due to pride, Herod Agrippa I, the King of Judea from 37-44 AD, who killed the apostle James and tried to kill Peter, was eaten of worms for receiving the excessive praise of men (Acts 12:1-4,20-23). Josephus confirms his death (Antiquities; Book 19; 8:2). Don’t forget the Tower of Babel, Miriam, Korah, Balaam, Uzziah, Haman, Absalom, and Belshazzar. But now, dear reader, celebrating the shame of others, which is an act of holy worship to God, is over! It is your turn. Where is the pride in your life?

God is jealous. His name is Jealous (Ex 34:14). He is able, and He will, abase those who walk in pride (Dan 4:37; Job 40:11-12). He sees and knows the very thoughts and intents of your heart (Heb 4:12). You must examine yourself closely, find the seeds of pride in your life, and root them out quickly and completely. What is pride? It is a high or overweening opinion of one’s own qualities, attainments, or estate, which gives rise to a feeling and attitude of superiority over and contempt for others; inordinate self-esteem (OED). What is conceit? It is an overweening opinion of oneself; overestimation of one’s own qualities, personal vanity or pride (OED).

We are nothing, and less than nothing, in the sight of God (Ps 39:5; 62:9; 113:6; Is 40:17). We are worms before Him (Job 25:6). We are mere creatures whose breath is in our nostrils (Is 2:22). Therefore, He hates the proud, and He will crush them like a moth and melt them like wax (6:16-17; Ps 39:11; 68:2).
Pride thinks you are important. Pride enjoys conversations and events about you. Pride believes your thoughts and opinions are right. Pride resents correction and instruction. Pride envies the advantages, abilities, or honors of others. Pride ignores asking others for advice. Pride looks down on others. Read this description again, dear reader.

Pride is a temptation for every man, and one of Satan’s favorite devices (I John 2:16). He tempted Eve to be like God, and he tempted our Lord with the kingdoms of the world. Our depraved hearts are filled with it by nature. You are already a proud fool, if you think you do not have a problem with it. Only those who know they are proud are learning humility. To think you have beaten pride is to prove your arrogant conceit!

Our nation is addicted to pride. Our nationalistic arrogance is greater than any other. We are the proudest people on earth. We believe we are the feeding mother and disciplining father for the whole world. We glorify pride at home by calling it self-esteem and preaching it as the panacea for humanity’s problems! Books are sold about looking out for number one, and songs are sung about self-love as the greatest love of all!

We must start at home. We must root pride out of our own souls, and then we must root it out of our families. Parents must make it the highest priority to teach humility and eradicate visible pride from their children. And pastors must root it out of their churches. Pride causes folly, which brings shame. It blinds men, because they presume they are always right (12:15; 14:16; 26:12; 28:26). So they reject and resent counsel and correction (21:24; 22:3). They disrespect those in authority. They make hasty decisions, for they cannot possibly be wrong (14:29; 29:20). It causes strife, for they fight to defend their position (13:10; 28:25). They cannot stoop to serve others, unless it serves them best. And they will not admit mistakes to God or men. Such a course will lead a man to foolish decisions and their horrible consequences – destruction and shame!

Lowliness is wisdom. The humble man does not trust his knowledge or motives, trembles before God’s word, appreciates and esteems the advice of others, takes correction cheerfully, quickly confesses mistakes, and alters his life. Here is the certain road to wisdom, which saves a man from trouble and shame, but only the lowly ever find it. The proud are blinded from it by their conceit, and the Jealous God of heaven intends to keep them blinded, so He can bless His children with wisdom (Matt 11:25-27).

God will never bless a man with a proud spirit (16:5). He draws near to the man with the humble spirit (Is 57:15; 66:2; I Pet 5:5-6). If you choose pride, God will resist you and humble you painfully (16:18; 18:12). If you choose humility cheerfully, God will raise you up gloriously (Luke 14:11). It is far better to be a poor humble man than to be a rich proud man, for God is about to cause a great reversal of fortune (16:19). Look for it!

Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ gave us the greatest example of humility and wisdom, when He came from heaven’s glory to live in poverty and die in obscurity and pain (Phil 2:5-8). He despised the shame of His humility (Heb 12:2). But God has now highly exalted Him far above all principalities and powers, yea, even far above the devil and all his angels (Phil 2:9-11; Eph 1:20-23). There is no more humility in the Blessed and Only Potentate, for He is worthy of all our praise and adoration.
Jonathan Crosby

When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

Proverbs 11:2 KJV

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Proverbs 30:13 CEV

I have worked with people all of my adult life and through the years I learned  a 3% rule. People that think they are better than everybody, can’t be pleased, or are ignorant fall into this 3%. These are the people that consume you emotionally. The people that leave you fuming long after they left. They are the 3% of the population you can’t please. You may know more than 3% but the 3% are the really stuck-up, snobbing people that havn’t been told the world does not revolve around them.

Some people are just stuck-up. Place them in the 3% rule and move on. Do not let them ruin your day. Most people have to either win the argument with someone in the 3% or they feel they can change them. Proverbs tells us we can’t win an argument with a fool and there are some people you just can’t change. The three percentors want to make you mad or upset. They thrive on calamity.

My wife when she got mad at a three percentor, would look them right in the eye and say “smile Jesus loves you!” She didn’t want to say what she was really thinking so I knew when she said that, she was red hot mad. We are now at the point when someone is yelling in a store or restaurant we can look at each other and think, oh a three percentor.

Think about what you do or think when you come across a Proverbs 30:13 person. How much do you let them get under your skin?

Chris Riehl

There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.

Proverbs 30:13 KJV

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Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach; good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.

Proverbs 18:20 MSG

Proverbs 18:20 says what your lips produce will fill your life. Your lips produce — words.
Words determine the course and the outcome of your life. You now have, and will continue to have, the fruit your tongue produces.
To change your life you need to change your words.

As Jesus said, out of the abundance of your heart your mouth will speak. So, you need a new heart and you need it filled with God’s Word. Only in that way can your tongue be brought under complete control.
SAY THIS: Lord, because your Word teaches that words control my life, please help me to control my words.

JAMES 3:2,8 NIV
2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
8 but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
To change the words you speak you need God’s help.
Dean Wall

20 A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth, and from the produce of his lips he shall be filled.

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:20-21 NKJ

You will be well rewarded for saying something kind, but all some people think about is how to be cruel and mean.

Proverbs 13:2 CEV

Tonight my wife and I got caught up in some drama with people we know that love the drama. The really good comebacks and things we knew would prove us to be the winner of the word battle were not said to the other people but said between us. We came up with some really good things we should of said or were going to say if the topic were brought up again.

Then reality hit as we were going through Proverbs 13. What were we thinking? How many times have you reacted the same way. Something happens with someone and you get in your car and most of the drive is spent role-playing how you should of said this or that or you plan what you will say next time. None of that is healthy. Immediately after reading Proverbs 13, we realized we were not being kind but being behinds.

Nothing was gained by our make believe comebacks, nothing. We went from laughing and having a great night to feeding a side of both of us that we don’t like. This was not the first time a drama bout broke out with the same people like it did tonight and they have had a pattern the last year or so of being short tempered and over reacting. Everything we said to them was kind but nothing we said behind their back was kind and that is where my wife and I were completely wrong.

Some people are just mean and cruel and they need to create conflict. Everyone is out to get them and conflict is just normal to them. Some people feel this way as soon as they sit behind a car. They turn into another person, who is consumed with vehicular justice. Is that just the way they are or is something causing their anger.

I think most people are working through things we just don’t know. I remember when my faith was weak, the burdens I use to carry made me feel angry and frustrated. The best day of my life was the day I gave all my burdens to the Lord. Not just some or the ones I wanted to give but all of them big and small. In the past a night like tonight would have continued into tomorrow and on and on. The word of God through Proverbs made me evaluate myself and make the changes I need to live a happy life and not one surrounded by strife.