Do not let [God’s Words] out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
Summary: Through the words of Solomon, God admonishes us to “pay attention” to what he says.
First off, let me clear up any questions about the passage quoted above. Verse 21 is a partial quote. The full passage reads:
My son, pay attention to what I say;
turn your ear to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body. (Proverbs 4: 20-22)
Solomon is telling his children to pay attention to his words. God included Solomon’s words in his message to us for a reason. That is why I have substituted “God’s Word” for “Solomon’s words”. If anyone has a problem with that, you can take it up with my boss.
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What happens when we let God’s Word out of our sight? Do we know? How long has it been since we as a people have kept God’s Word in our hearts?
I find this to be a troubling question. Our world is in a great deal of turmoil these days. The question that burns in my mind is this: “How much of our current trouble in the world is because of letting God’s Word out of our sight?”
The answer, I fear, is all of it.
All of the trouble we have in the world can be laid at the feet of Satan’s lie that we do not need God. All of our social concerns we have belong there, too. And what about our personal problems? Most of them belong in the same place as well.
Why do we ignore God’s Word? Why is it buried under a pile of old National Geographic magazines, or stuck in a closet?
Our Creator has taken the time to write an amazing love letter to us. In it, he has explained everything that is required for the Good Life. It is a book that is written for the Ages. Yet we pick it apart because God did not tailor his writing to our specific generation and time in history.
Pah!
If we do not read it, that is on us.
If we cannot understand it, that is on us, too. We cannot hold on to our worldly ways and expect that God’s Word is going to fit into that mental framework.
If we do not live it, this also is on us.
God is not a myth, he is the reality. We need to come to grips with that. Everything good stems from God. The time has arrived when we all have to decide whom we serve. Are we going to continue ignoring God so that we can pursue the pleasures of this life? Or do we acknowledge a truth as blindingly obvious as the morning sun?
Application: Keep your Bible close. Read it. Internalize it.
Food for Thought: How would the world be different if those of us who say we believe in God’s Word kept his Word in our hearts instead of on the bookshelf?
As I read this… It was like God was the trumpeter and you are his mouth piece! AMEN and thank you…. Some need to hear this a little louder than others granted but I stopped at PAH and took my Bible off the shelf, found my passage and bookmarked that.
Practically, your right it is the lack of God that is the source of most of today’s problems. And I will to choose to live AND serve my God and quit being destracted by Satan and society… You guys may see me join you virtually on a Wednesday soon but definitely in person because I do miss that group. But really here’s the thing
Later I will be sharing that passage and this page with a group of men who I feel will really benefit from hearing it … So many amazing fathers, husbands, that are broken because they are driven by society to work work work and then hey you can get away with about anything after that… Drugs are all legal, alcohol is cheap and on the stores and in the grocery stores, etc. If I can get a single person to hear God speak to them like this did to me…. Then Brother in Christ AMEN!
Phill,
Amen! If I can be God’s mouthpiece, I am humbled and honored. All glory to God! If the words he gave me to share rekindle his fire in your heart, Praise God! The more I read his Word and meditate on it, the more alive I feel. I wish the same for you and every other person, too. Blessings!
Thank you Phil. It is so great to hear from you and hear your heart in this. And I love what you say here. Well stated.
I think if we actually apply God’s word it will change us to become more and more like Christ. And that will definitely make the world a better place and glorify God. People would see better examples of Christ and hopefully be attracted to Him. Matthew 5: 14 – 16.
Rich,
Imagine the love of God reflected through a billion faces …
To me even keeping His Word in our hearts isn’t enough,..because His Word needs to be lived out in our lives not locked up. Sure I have His Word in my heart but if I don’t act upon what has been instilled then The Word I have in my heart is just like the book collecting dust on a shelf.
Knowledge is useless unless it’s applied,..same thing holds true with God’s Word to us,..His Word needs to be applied not locked up in a place where it can’t be seen or heard.
The world would be a lot different if we shared with each other what is in our hearts,..but as you and I know a lot of prayers have not been answered and that is a huge reason why there is a lack of faith in the lives of those that do know God,..
I would imagine that there are plenty of people that know God who are crying out asking for His intervention or some kind of miraculous sign. Probably happening on both sides,..
Anyway,..hope I am not out of line here,..but action needs to be taken with the Word we have in our hearts,..being stagnate gets us nowhere.
Brother John,
You are not out of line. Thank you for your thoughts. My experience has been that as day follows night, so the action you advocate for follows having God’s Word in our heart. If The Word truly is in our heart, it changes us… transforms us (Rom 12:2) from the inside out.
02-26-2022, Proverbs 4:21, How would the world be different if those of us who say we believe in God’s Word kept his Word in our hearts instead of on the bookshelf?
We could learn, God is beyond our capacity, ability to ever comprehend. We could learn we are only His instruments, to be used as He has predetermined before creation. Our salvation and ministry on earth is not of us, but the work of the Holy Spirit convicting each of our sins and pointing the way to our salvation. It is He who is allowing Jesus Christ to be seen as He ministers to others through us as we choose to follow Him in submissive service to God.
John 3:16, John 16:8-15, Philippians 2:5-8,
How would the world be different?
The four Gospels show the many different responses and eventual rejection, crucification of Jesus Christ as the Son of God walked and taught Gods truths to mankind. I have no reason to believe this will change except for opposition to all that is good becoming greater. God’s Word being proclaimed through believers is a condemnation of all this world stands for and the opposition is determined to silence or pervert the truth.
Matthew 8:34, Mark 6:3,12:10, Luke 4:28-29, Luke 17:25, John 12:48
At the same time, everyday I am on this earth is a day given to me by God, to be used by God as He reveals Jesus Christ to others. I have PURPOSE and I can only pray every believer would see and allow God to use them for His Purpose each day. It begins with daily study and meditation with Him through His Word.
Ron,
Finding our “purpose” is a wonderful discovery to make. To have a purpose there must be someone to give us a mission and meaning. That Someone is God. Both go hand in hand. As we grow in faith, we trust in God more. As we trust in God more, who we are and who we were made to be join together into one person. It is a wonderfully serendipitous thing to experience!
If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD
Joshua 24:15
And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Mark7:18-23
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Jeremiah 31:33
Okay context, Joshua is the choice (choose God), Jeremiah is a description of the new covenant (God’s law in our hearts), and Mark is the description of how our hearts effect our words and actions.
A —
The Mark 7 passage is a complex one. It begins with Jewish Pharisees and TOTL (teachers of the law) harassing Jesus and his disciples about a point of their law. Jesus puts this into context when quotes from Isaiah, “their teachings are merely human rules.” (Verse 7)
Then Jesus turns to the crowd of Jews who are watching and provides a teaching from God. This is a clarification of what is really important. It is also a public rebuke of the Pharisees and their human rules.
Finally Jesus explains to his disciples what is going on. That is the passage you quote. As I read his meaning, what happens to the body is spiritually insignificant. What happens in the heart is spiritually significant.
So the question that remains is this: How does internalizing God’s Word (accepting Jesus as Lord, repenting of our self-centeredness, and focusing on God’s will, i.e. – the Great Commandments (Matthew 22: 37-40)) change the world?
Jeff,
How would the world be different if those of us who say we believe in God’s Word kept his Word in our hearts instead of on the bookshelf?
Ahhh, I see the confusion. I was pointing at individuals being changed. Christianity is claimed by many more people than really love it out.
If every person who claimed it for status or because mom and dad taught them to allowed His word to actually be in their hearts, then individuals would change.
They would choose God , no matter what others did. God would write His law on their hearts, His Spirit living inside them.
Though Mark 7 is mostly a rebuke to the pharisees, it doesn’t make the passage I quoted any less true. The heart is what determines what comes out of you. How the pharisees manipulate the law to avoid doing what God wants them to shows what is in their heart.
Just as any individual truly embracing God’s word will live it out, because it is written there.
So I guess, I don’t necessarily think there is a direct effect on the world, but much more individual. Honesty would increase, giving would increase, serving would increase, sexual sins would decrease, divorce would decrease. There are indirect effects and those of the world would notice. Some yes, notice and accept Jesus, but I believe someone already pointed out that persecution would rise up to meet us. Especially in the states, if we (overall) lived more aligned with God, then the hard hearted would push back. We are not used to that like many other countries are.
It would not be a utopia. And unless Jesus comes back for us, then faith will continue to ebb and flow (percentage of people of faith overall across generations, not individuals) as it has before in this battle of souls.
I hope this makes my thoughts more clear. And if I’m wrong and it would have a bigger effect, then praise God! After all, He is the one who changes hearts.
I suppose also, James 2:14-26 are in the back of my mind with this. Though it does not mention our heart, one could say the faith without works may be a symptom of a heart without God’s word. And faith with works has appropriately placed God’s word inside his heart. That’s a much simpler way of expressing this
A —
Just to be clear, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer. 🙂
You list an amazing number of changes that would likely occur if more people kept God’s Word in their hearts. Would that affect the world?
How would it affect your perception of the world if there were fewer problems, more kindness, and more humility towards God? For my part, I would welcome the change!
Thank you again for wrestling with this! You painted a beautiful picture of how lives could be changed.