TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER 2024)
“The foolishness of a man twists his way, and his heart frets against the Lord.” Proverbs 19:3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 253RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Today we will be refreshing our minds on the danger of personal foolishness, but we will start with the foolishness of putting up an attitude, especially in an environment of blessing.
When it comes to receiving and retaining the blessings of God’s goodness, attitudes are some of the major keys. Attitudes do not just help us resist or retain supernatural treasures from God, they also help in making our prayers work or fail depending on the type!
Your attitude is the way you view or evaluate someone or something. If it is wrong, it becomes wrong attitude. If it is right, it becomes right attitude. Attitude towards people, if bad, can ruin your chance of progress in life. It can lock you up in a dungeon of hardship and sorrow.
“Whenever God does you good, you put up a wrong attitude and lose it, and then return to zero.” That is the story of many people.
It is very important that you learn to maintain good attitudes especially in an environment of God’s blessings. If you do not know how to make adjustments and maintain good attitudes in an environment of God’s blessings, you will always be at the losing end of life.
There are also people, who do not just have a wrong attitude towards people, but also towards God. God is the last person you should put up an attitude towards because it hurts severely.
Your attitude towards God is the way you view and evaluate Him. It has a way of determining how your life turns out, either in this life or the life after. There are people who cannot enjoy favor for a long time, not because of demons, but because of their attitudes.
They have a very bad attitude, and turns it towards God and man. It is important to note that people are in hell today because of their attitudes towards God. No one who ever had a wrong attitude towards God, ended well in time or eternity.
THE FOOLISHNESS OF PUTTING UP AN ATTITUDE CAN BE VERY COSTLY.
By definition, your attitude is also your predisposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards an idea, an object, a situation, or a person. If you will ever rise in life, you must work on that predisposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively in you. You must ask God to help you.
For instance, you do not work out on your boss, husband, pastor, father, or mother when you do not like what they said. That is a wrong attitude. You do not talk back at people who are your benefactors in life. That is a wrong attitude.
You do not act rudely to someone you do not know. That is a wrong attitude. You might be shutting down a major door of blessing. If you are a student, you do not treat your teachers with disdain, or disrespect no matter the situation. That will be a wrong attitude, and wrong attitudes have never helped any student in life, no matter how bright they might be.
You do not receive help from someone and not say, “thank you for your kindness.” That is a wrong attitude.
One thing to work on on daily bases, is our predispositions or tendency to respond to people, circumstances or situations negatively or positively. Wrong or negative attitudes will never help you in life, let none deceive you about that.
Wrong or negative attitudes are much more powerful in hindering us from progressing in live than demons.
A man’s prayer life may be regular, powerful and tremendous, especially in making God’s hand available in his life. But if he does not have the right attitude in life, he will destroy everything his prayer can bring down from the bowels of God’s mercies.
That is why people who pray must also learn how to have the right attitude in life so that their prayer life will not be frustrated by their wrong attitudes. Sadly, majority of present-day Christians do not have that.
Most believers pray so much and put on very bad attitudes, even after prayers, thereby ruining everything. The foolishness of putting up a wrong attitude in life, is one kind that we must all avoid. Generally, foolishness is an enemy that everyone calls a friend, and most times defend.
Yes, I have defended my foolishness even before God, and if you check your life, you have also done so.
FIGHTING FOR AND PROTECTING OUR PERSONAL FOOLISHNESS IS A MAJOR HALLMARK OF OUR LIVES.
Many of us sleep with our personal foolishness in our heads, and allow it to fester in our reasoning. When a man becomes foolish most times, he does not recognize it. That is why we fight for it. Come to think of it, why will a man fight to protect what kills him?
It’s because of blindness. The Bible says;
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.” Proverbs 3:5-8 NKJV
There is a blindness that comes upon our hearts when we begin to distrust the LORD, become wise in our own eyes, and lean on our own understanding.
It will interest you to know that one of the major signs of personal foolishness is becoming wise in our own eyes and leaning on our own understanding. When we begin to lean on our own understanding, we begin to reject wise counsel from anyone.
The Bible made it clear that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. When you see a man rejecting wise counsel, you have seen someone who will soon be caught in a snare of life, or the trappings of the evil one. Rejecting wise counsel is a sign that you are becoming foolish. And God does not want us to operate in foolishness.
Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:14-16 NKJV
When you walk in wisdom you redeem precious time lost. But when you walk in foolishness you waste precious time – especially times of visitations and glorious liftings from Heaven.
You see, the Bible calls God “The all wise God.” Meaning, personal foolishness is not one of His attributes. If you do not want to be foolish, you must allow Him to guide your steps. Foolishness is one word the book of proverbs strongly condemns, one life style it attacked, and one root cause of the problems of many in the body of Christ.
Sometimes I wonder if it is possible for the all wise GOD to have foolish children; come to think of children who are all round fools in many aspects, especially in matters of eternity.
MOST CHILDREN OF GOD, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE EITHER HEARING OR SEEING FROM GOD, ARE DAMN FOOLISH.
Yes, many of us are foolish. If we were not, we will not be listening to the flesh above God. We will not be frustrating the arm of the LORD and making prayers powerless with the instrumentality of our personal foolishness.
For instance, it is foolish for a young lady to open her legs to any man who asks her to sleep with him because he wants to marry her. But even believers act in that foolish way. We forget that most failed relationships, failed because of the foolishness of illegitimate sex.
There are Christian ladies who sleeps with men because they gave them some form of assistance, like a lift, calling them generous. But the real generous person here is the lady who gave the man freely something he ought to satisfy marital rites to get.
Sex is expensive, God never made it cheap!
God made it expensive that is why in His plan you cannot have it with anyone until the price of getting (with the intention of staying) married is paid. But to a fool, what I just stated is nonsense!
Many do not know that it is foolish to believe God to get married while doing things that are making you un-marry-able. It is foolish to believe God to restore your marriage, sacrificing towards it and praying about it but doing things that will make sure that that marriage is not restored.
Most separations and divorce are caused by attitudes of foolishness not really the devil. That is why it is foolish to be spiritualizing everything as a Christian. If a woman has a bad attitude that she refuses to either acknowledge or repent of, no sane man will spend his days with her.
In the same way, if a man has a bad attitude that he refused to work on, no sane woman will spend the rest of her life with him.
Sadly, I have seen women doing that. But God never created it to be so. They live with men that are animalistic in attitudes, thereby destroying their lives. I have also seen men doing so; living with women who ordinarily should be single for life, due to bad behavior.
The truth is, most ladies are single and some will die single while God wants them to get married, because they have an attitude problem.
YES, BECAUSE THEY HAVE AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE A SPIRITUAL HUSBAND.
If your attitudes are keeping you single, and you go praying against anyone keeping you single, you are indeed praying against yourself. Thank God he does not answer such prayers. If He does, you would have been sorry!
I believe the LORD has spoken to us this morning. Time to become objective and not just subjective! The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:17, “Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers of the city.”
That clearly tells us what foolishness does. It weakens a man.
Foolishness will weaken your faith, frustrate the grace of God upon your life, deny you access to victory, kill your marriage, destroy your economy, and do the devil’s bidding in your life. God wants us to become wise, and wiser than our enemies. His word can help us achieve that.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL SOURCE OF MEDITATION TODAY.
“He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; He who keeps understanding will find good. Proverbs 19:8 NKJV
“Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a servant to rule over princes.” Proverbs 19:10
“The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression.” Proverbs 19:11
“A foolish son is the ruin of his father, and the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping.” Proverbs 19:13 NKJV
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.”
“But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.”
“This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”
“Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:13-18 NKJV