Feb 2, 2021
The more 2021 resembles 2020, the more Christians should be grounded in those unchanging truths given us in Scripture. We must rest on the revelations that make sense of our cultural moment: that Christ is risen, that Christ is Lord, and that Christ is making all things new. God has placed each of us and this time and in this place. It is here and it is now that He wants us. He wants us to participate with Him as agents of reconciliation in His larger story of redemption.
To do this well, especially in light of the chaos of 2020, we are going to have to recalibrate. And as Paul told Timothy, this exactly the point of Holy Scripture. “All Scripture is God breathed,” he wrote, “and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting and for training in righteousness.” Isn’t that exactly the trajectory we need right now? To know what's right, to be confronted when we are wrong, and to be turned around to start again on the right path?
That’s why each Wednesday at 10:30 Eastern until Easter, the Colson Center is hosting a time of guided prayer online with a particular focus on the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs is straight-forward. That’s one of the reasons I love it so much. It's not some kind of esoteric, hard to understand, “spiritual wisdom” that's offered in the holy books of many faiths. Proverbs gets right to the point and shoots you right between the eyes.
Each week’s prayer time begins with prayer, and then it ends with prayer. It’s centered on how we can pray in light of the instruction of a particular proverb. For example, here's my good friend Sean McDowell, whose reflection on Proverbs 25:15 hit me right where I needed:
One of the proverbs that has jumped out to me over the past year and a half, and one that I've been thinking about a lot as the temperature in our culture is increasing, is Proverbs 25:15. The ESV reads, “With patience, A ruler may be persuaded and a soft tongue will break a bone.”
I love that this is not an isolated proverb. There are themes throughout Scripture about kindness, about tenderness, and about patience. It seems to me that we've lost some of those lessons today in the Church. Rather than being patient, we are quick to anger, but in the letter to the Romans, it's God's loving kindness that draws us to repentance. Proverbs 15:1 tells us that a soft word turns away anger. Christianity is not only true, but what it offers to the world uniquely is truth and grace.
I think Proverbs 25:15 represents a small step of showing grace to people in and outside the Church that, frankly, today people don't expect. It catches them off guard. Here are a couple insights about this proverb.
First, this proverb reminds us that some change only takes place with patience. We should be thinking more about the long term than how do we fix this by tomorrow, or even next year, or maybe even five years. The second thing that it says patience is long-suffering, meaning that the process can be painful to see change take place. This is certainly true for athletes, but it's true spiritually.
Now this proverb not only talks about patience but talks about “a ruler.” I love this. Obviously, the writer was thinking more of a king or maybe the nobles of his day, but “ruler” today is really anybody with authority. Those in the government or those in the university system, or maybe those in Hollywood. These people, in a sense, rule our culture.
The proverb says they may be persuaded. I don’t know about you, but I look at certain leaders and I’m tempted to think they’re beyond hope. They can’t be saved; they’re gone. But, then I started thinking, “This is such a human perspective.” This passage says rulers can be persuaded. That’s a good reminder.
That was Sean McDowell leading a time of guided prayer with his reflections on Proverbs 25:15. To watch Sean’s entire devotional, come to BreakPoint.org/Proverbs. While you're there, register to join us each and every Wednesday from now until Easter. All sessions are recorded, so if you can't join us during the live release, the video will be available to watch and share later. Tomorrow’s session will be led by my friend Trevin Wax, followed next week Erin Kunkel and Sarah Stonestreet of the Colson Center’s Strong Women Podcast.