Not Ruining Ourselves

 The Bible teaches that we are to live in righteousness. It also encourages us to get wisdom from the Lord, so that we can understand things the way He does and live well. Both of these things are very good, and I would recommend them highly for everyone. However, it is possible to take righteousness and wisdom to an extreme that is unhealthy for us.

God has commanded us to watch out for this. (Ecclesiastes 7:16) "Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?" I know that might sound very strange to us, as believers, but I know it is true. I have met believers who fell into both of these categories.

It is possible to be excessively righteous by being paranoid over every action and every word we say, so that we are worried if we are being righteous enough to please God completely. Since worry is a sin, we can be ruined by this practice. Instead, we should practice God's will from following God's Word, the best we can and allow the Spirit to convict us of any problems. He will do just that, and we don't have to be obsessing over things.

Much the same is true with being overly wise. We can over think things. We can be so concerned that we haven't thought of all of the details about a subject that we have a fear of making decisions. We can be afraid that we are lacking wisdom, so we spend all of our time seeking more to the point that we neglect doing the other things the Lord commands us to do. Let's act on God's wisdom as we know it, and keep learning, but let's not be afraid. Let's allow the Spirit to direct us in this, too.

#NHBaptistdotorg

Tomorrow, I intend to read Ecclesiastes 8-10.