My Daily Pause

The Lord hates dishonest weights,
and dishonest scales do not please him. – Proverbs 20:23 NCV

Are the things you call “good” compared to God’s measuring stick or your own?

Virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love are popularly known as the Christian graces. (2 Peter 1:5-7) But that makes it sound like they come free with our faith.

Looking closer, Peter said to be diligent to supplement our faith with these things! (v. 5)

That means in order to bear the fruit of the Spirit, we have to keep training ourselves to practice these qualities (v. 8)

Maybe we should be calling them the Christian objectives!

A scale only compares against standard measurements

The Lord hates dishonest scales, but he is pleased with honest weights – Proverbs 11:1 NCV

When one takes a measurement of something, she is only comparing the object against another. When we react to our environment, we mentally gauge everything we see, hear and do against some other standard in that exact same way.

Baseball sized hail is dangerous. A baseball sized scoop of ice cream is not quite enough.

When you find yourself justifying a decision you are about to make, do you measure it against the standards of men or of God?

You are who you spend your time with

If you listen to correction to improve your life,
you will live among the wise.  – Proverbs 15:31 NCV

Two variations of this advice that are now a bit cliché:

We become as knowledgeable as our five closest friends

or

We become as rich as our five closest friends.

Choosing who we spend our time with is our most critical decision because they will become the source of our advice. Living among those wiser, richer or kinder  provides us the examples and correction we need to be like them.

Acting on that correction helps keep us among them.

Did our country’s greatness come from God?

Doing what is right makes a nation great,
but sin will bring disgrace to any people. – Proverbs 14:34 NCV

I wrote about this verse a few years ago when some extraordinary things were happening here and around the world. The things that were happening then seem pale by comparison to some of the events today. What will another few years bring?

This country was founded as a country that recognizes the God of the Bible and her founding documents refer to Him numerous times. If we continue to allow “separation of church and state” to mean that God is not allowed in our government, I’m afraid He will go ahead and leave.