Thought for the Day

Verse 24 - As we have seen in previous studies, a sluggard is one who is habitually lazy. He does not even want to feed himself. We find many today who look to others to feed them, because they do not want to work. We need to pray for them, since the Lord desires to touch their lives and give them a desire to live righteously and to work (Proverbs 13:4).

Verse 25 - Anyone who scorns authority by disturbing a public meeting should not be allowed to take the platform, but should be admonished and removed from the assembly. While pastoring the church, my husband and I had to deal with some difficult situations. Once, a woman got up during the service and began to admonish us and our congregation with some very strong words. We asked the Lord what to do. He spoke to our hearts that we should walk over to her, lay hands on her, and pray for her. We prayed along these lines: "Lord, we know our sister is concerned about some things in this church. We ask You to work in all of our lives so that we remain a church that is loving and kind. Help our sister to be loving also; to respect the others in this service and refrain from speaking out while another is speaking. Lord, let everything be done decently and in order." She immediately sat down and we finished the service without further disturbance.

On another occasion, a stranger entered our service. When we acknowledged him as a visitor, he began chastising our congregation for things that we were not guilty of; and he prophesied that the whole church would be destroyed. This time, we told the man before all the people, "Sir, we do not receive the words that you just spoke over this church. Our people are loving and kind and your words do not come from our Lord." He immediately left, stomping out the back door. When he was gone, we all prayed for him to be set free from an accusing spirit, and that he would come to know the true love of God.

We only had a few situations like these, because we learned that we could take authority in prayer ahead of time and bind any disturbing spirits from our meetings.

When a man of understanding is reproved, he gains more knowledge. If anyone admonishes us about something, we should take it to the Lord and ask Him if it is the truth, even if they tell us something in a wrong manner, we should still ask the Lord about it because there may be a grain of truth in it.