Wisdom From the Proverbsናሙና

Proverbs 25

Have you ever eaten too much? There's a massive difference between feeling content and satisfied versus uncomfortable and in pain. When you eat just the right amount and you practice self-control, you come away thoroughly enjoying your meal. When you overeat, it can ruin the enjoyment of the meal, and it makes you feel sick. The thing you were delighting in became the very thing that you don't want near you.

Proverbs 25:16 says, "If you find honey, eat just enough – too much of it, and you will vomit."

When God was taking the Israelites to the Promised Land, He often referred to it as "a land flowing with milk and honey." Honey represented abundance. God was taking His people to a place where they could enjoy abundance! However, in Deuteronomy 8:11-18, He reminds them to be careful that once they have all the food they can enjoy, the houses of their dreams, plenty of herds and flocks, and their money is multiplying, that they don't forget Him - the Giver of these gifts.

Enjoyment of God's gifts cannot be separated from God. Otherwise, what happens, as seen with the Israelites, is that His gifts soon don't become enough. Because they were never meant to satisfy us; they were meant for our enjoyment out of a relationship with God. We'll only ever be satisfied in God, not in His gifts. And when we take God out of the picture, overindulge, eating too much honey, His gifts make us sick. A heart sickness where we're not satisfied enough and so we search for more, something "better", something more enticing and the gifts of the world and the devil often seem very enticing.

Keep God at the centre, and it’s always about Him more than His gifts. We'll enjoy His gifts without feeling the need to overindulge because we're satisfied in Him already. This is why the disciplines are so important! Fast His gifts for a time so that your heart doesn't become more concerned with them rather than God. Practice self-control and don't give in to greed.

There are many who sadly seem to promote God's gifts of wealth, prosperity, good health and abundance far more than the very beauty and all-satisfying goodness of God Himself. It's the pursuit of being comfortable and content in something other than God that leads to our downfall. However good money is, God is better. However good being healthy is, God is better. However good having the best house, or job, or anything else is, God is far better.

The beauty is that God wants us to enjoy these gifts; however they're apportioned to each of us. Yet, we're also promised suffering, and this is much more bearable when our satisfaction is in God, not in what we have or don't have.

So, enjoy God first and foremost. Thank Him for His gifts but don't let your heart prioritise them. He truly is better than anything we could ever desire.