If - Then

We ran into this handsome fellow Sunday in our adult bible study. He’s another old friend who shows up every once in a while in my life.

My son, if you will receive my sayings,
And treasure my commandments within you,
Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord,
And discover the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Prov. 2:1-6)

Perhaps you’ve noticed that we Christians are wringing our hands a lot nowadays. As we perceive the world-condition, hope does not seem to be triumphant in our lives. Constantly we are lamenting the fact that righteousness is not exactly winning the day. “If only we would do this, then that would happen” we declare. “If only the church would become more active, then we would heal our government”, etc, etc. Wherever you may be wringing your hands, I’ll leave it up to you to “fill in the blanks”. Actually, I am becoming increasingly annoyed whenever I hear or read about what will happen when we “do what is right”. Christ requires of us that we do what is right. The problem is that the man-made edifice known as the church is not going to do “what is right”. We are not going to turn our government around to embrace a state of righteousness. It is not the inclination of the world community to respond to whatever emasculated call to righteousness that we are fumbling over. Are you doing what is right? Do so with vigor. It is what Christ demands of us all. Be proactive in obedience to His call in your life. You will be healing individuals and whole communities as Christ sees fit. We are a remnant people. He is in the process of calling us out into a remnant-like community. Want to have more hope and less hand-wringing in your life? Let’s try Solomon’s advice.

If we treasure His commandments,
If we incline our hearts,
If we cry for discernment,
If we lift up our voices,
If we seek her as we would silver and hidden treasures,

Then, we will discern and fear Him and have hope as He sees fit.

Hard work, diligence, yearning for Him, and even some agonizing seems to be required here. Let’s go for it. The night may be soon gone.