Proverbs 3:7 says: “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”
I grew up alone, as the daughter of a single mother who worked pretty much 6 days a week. My grandmother took care of me but she also has to work. So from my early years I learned to live my own life, make my very own decisions and feel proud about it. I grew up thinking that everything I heard around me were suggestions, that I was pretty smart to decide by my self what was good for me.
Was it wrong for a young child to think this way? Are we now old enough? Mm remember that the apostle John calls us “little children”.
But seriously!! Is it wrong to have my own thoughts? To be me? Isn’t this what we all look for? Didn’t God create us with individual minds?
Well I hope I’m not going to confuse anybody. And bear with me as I go along with this. I was this child who loved God with all my heart. In my mind all what i was doing pleased Him. But my style of life making me to be wise in my own eyes! Though I loved God, I was not giving God space to teach me His ways. All what I would do was to think what people said was good or bad. I would pay attention how people felt about the behaviors of others, and base on the people around me I would choose who I wanted to be like. I praise God that He filled me up with godly people and friends after my 7 year of age. The problem was that I did not know that the majority of the values that I was learning to live by came from the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, so when I grew up, my values changed based on the good people around me. This time they did not follow those peculiar things that I had learned before. But they were nice and good people.
I knew back then. And I know today a lot of people who are very responsible, loving, with very good morals, but they or we don’t follow the will of God.
Even though the counsel still the same: Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”
Now, who defines good and who defines evil?
One night I woke up after a dream that I honestly don’t remember but the achy feeling of the dream made me wake up that night and fall in my knees to pray. Then this impression came into my mind:
My dear child, you must see me as you would look at a picture when you are drawing. Your picture will not be as the original, but as much as you try, and as much as you contemplate it, as much as you carefully look at it and try to do the sketch, then fully fill in all of the details, you will have the image you are looking for. As much as is your desire for perfection, so it will be reflected in the image you are drawing. That is the same when you look at me. My image will be in you one day, just as much as you desire me to be in you, it will be reflected in your life.”
“Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
What this has to do with: don’t be wise in your own opinion? For me it means that I will not make straight lines when I need to make curve lines. By looking to Jesus while I study his word in the Bible and spirit of Prophecy, and praying, evil will be clear, because it has nothing on him, (on Jesus). Just as when I’m drawing a cat, the final result will be a cat not an atomic bomb, because there is nothing in the atomic bomb that a cat has.
Remember that my very own opinion if it is not center in the word of God it becomes false faith. According to the spirit of Prophecy false faith as well as true faith will give peacefulness for a time. Paul verily thought that he was doing God service when he was persecuting the followers of Christ and putting them to death. He was sincere in his belief; but sincerity will not make error truth, nor truth error. “When the commandment came,” says Paul, “sin revived, and I died.” He then received the truth as it is in Jesus, and experienced its transforming power upon his soul. The truth was so firmly planted in his heart that he could say, “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – {RH January 5, 1886 Par. 8}
Now in the process of trying to have divine wisdom, we will be misunderstood, and criticized. Just like Noah was.
Let’s read this.
Numbers were not on the side of right. The world was arrayed against God’s justice and his laws, and Noah was regarded as a fanatic. Satan, when tempting Eve to disobey God, said to her, “Ye shall not surely die.” Great men, worldly, honored, and wise men, repeated the same story, “Ye shall not surely die.” “The threatenings of God,” they said, “are for the purpose of intimidating, and will never be verified. You need not be alarmed. Such an event as the destruction of the world by the God who made it, and the punishment of the beings he has created, will never take place. Be at peace; fear not. Noah is crazy; he is the wildest fanatic.” So the people did not humble their hearts before God, but continued their disobedience and wickedness, the same as though God had not spoken to them through his servant”. – {ST April 1, 1886 Par. 5}
But Noah stood like a rock amid the tempest. He was surrounded by every species of wickedness and moral corruption; but amid popular contempt and ridicule, amid universal wickedness and disobedience, he distinguished himself by his holy integrity and unwavering faithfulness. While the world around him were disregarding God, and were indulging in all manner of extravagant dissipation which led to violence and crimes of every kind, the faithful preacher of righteousness declared to that generation that a flood of water was to deluge the world because of the unsurpassed wickedness of its inhabitants. He warned them to repent and believe, and find refuge in the ark. L– {ST April 1, 1886 Par. 6}
Today we are not expecting a flood. We are expecting the second coming. Soon Jesus will come in the clouds. Let us not be wise in our own opinion as the antediluvians were. Let us follow the Holy instructions that God has given us in his law and precepts. His guide is in the Bible and in the writings of sister White. Let us look for Jesus and who He is. And let us do as He did.
