Should have learned a long time ago...

Proverbs 4

23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
24 Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.

25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

Solomon cries out to us from Proverbs about wisdom; "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." Prov 1:7.

How I wish I had grasped this reality when I was younger!! I think back to my teenage years and how rebellious and full of the world I was. How the entire focus of my young life was on ME and what I wanted and desired and could see right in front of me. Seemingly, it was a blast, but, low and behold, now that I am 55 years old in my flesh and 25 years in my spirit I see an incredible emptiness in my soul because of not hearing wisdom "crying out in the streets."

"Keeping my paths straight" was not in my priority of tasks during those days and into my mid-thirties, even.

But, through the grace and mercy of my Almighty God, the father of my Lord Jesus Christ, I have been made clean. I have been redeemed. I have become an heir of Christ. "All things have passed away, all things are new."

He is present in me. He has healed me. He has given me the 'wellspring of life' and I am enlivened with His promises and His power.

He has a purpose for me, now as he did in my younger years. But, now I am filled with the wisdom He has planned for me. I have experienced the 'world' and can be more compassionate for those that are NOT in the Way. He has allowed me to witness the world; first hand!! Didn't our Lord experience the same thing just before His crucifixion?

I am, now, intent on His purpose. But, oh, I wish I had been focused on Him and His purposes when I was a youngster. How much more I could have accomplished for Him.

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and give you peace.