Deliver Yourself

Proverbs 6:1-5

Dangerous Promises
   My son, if you become surety for your friend,
  If you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
  You are snared by the words of your mouth;
 You are taken by the words of your mouth.
  So do this, my son, and deliver yourself;
 For you have come into the hand of your friend:
 Go and humble yourself;
 Plead with your friend.
  Give no sleep to your eyes,
 Nor slumber to your eyelids.
  Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
 And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

What do you rejoice in?

Proverbs 17:5
He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker;
 He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

What do you talk about?

Proverbs 17:9
He who covers a transgression seeks love,
 But he who repeats a matter separates friends.

Jeremiah 10:24

“Correct me, LORD, but only with justice — not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.”
I love a request that a good friend regularly makes of the Lord: "Humble me gently, Father." Transformation is hard work and requires even more patience on God's part than it does on our part. We thank God for his grace which lets us admit our sin and yet still come into his holy and awesome presence.

Thankfully he doesn't treat us as we deserve, but as we need (cf. Psalm 103).

[Message No: 6865]