Friday Reading: Proverbs 27:22
Key Verse: Proverb 27:22
22 Though you should pound a fool in a bowl with a bar in the midst of wheat, his foolishness will not depart from him.
Devotion:
There are times when you try to imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes just so that you can figure out why they have done something or why they continue to do things even after you have told them that it is wrong! When I read this verse this morning I just had to comment on it! We are always going to have people who defy logic or defy common sense in this world; just as we will always have people who deny God. That is just the way of the world. The hard part comes when we try to teach those people about God...
I used to love watching the people in Africa pound the corn in a huge pestle and mortar but one thing that we probably don’t ever think of when we watch people doing that is that what goes in comes out. Yes it will look very different when it comes out to when it goes in, but it does not undergo a magic transformation into something else – it remains the same. We will meet many people in our lives that will be exactly the same, we will try to the ultimate ‘bible basher’ and teach them the truth... but what they come out as is going to depend on us. We could bash them round a lot and then see what comes out or we could make a concerted effort to do what is right and be sure of the outcome.
My Dad used to be quite adept at grinding things down in his pharmacy back in Zimbabwe (he probably still is) and he even tried to show me how you have to grind things down and not just bash away – it takes practice and it takes patience. When we are trying to teach others it will be the same thing; we will try bashing away at first and find out that things do not work that way. If we are willing to listen to others and learn the right ways, then we will be much better prepared for the work that lies ahead. We may take in fools who do not know God but we can teach them about God if we are willing to do it God’s way and not our own. He knows how each person will come to Him – we just have to listen to His instructions...
Points to Ponder:
Are you a basher or a grinder?
How often do you listen to God?
