10:1 Our behavior affects other people. When it is really difficult to choose to respond wisely to a situation, we should consider how our choices will impact the people close to us. Foolish behavior is more than self-destructive but wisdom can benefit the whole.
10:2 Greed and other desires cause us to become desperate and hopeless, weary and possibly even corrupted from constant temptation. Such a life is not life but slavery. God explains that we do not have to live that way. When we choose God as the authority and provider of our lives, submitting ourselves to righteousness, He ensures that our soul is satisfied.
10:3 The provision of God is substantial and thorough and constant. God knows what we need, better than we do, and it is His pleasure to provide it. When we focus on a life of righteousness, God ensures that every part of our lives is filled with things, people, relationships, joys and other blessings that don't just temporarily fill our desire but actually fulfill our lives.
God is always going to provide for the righteous, but the desire of the wicked is cast away from Him. God will be present and active in our lives when we reject and eject negative behavior from our lives.
10:4-5 It does not benefit a person to be lazy or apathetic. We were made with brains, bodies and souls in order to be diligent. Those who are physically and mentally able must be productive. It is bad for the brain, body and soul to be inactive. God is always working for our benefit; we should emulate our Father and continually work for the benefit of our family.
God has given each of His children gifts or skills; with our gifts and/or skills we are meant to impact humanity in our little corner of the earth. We are meant to think, interact, create, befriend, support. Our souls thrive when we allow them to exercise.
10:6-7 There are not benefits to being unkind or unjust. The universe has been designed by God to produce what has been sowed. To sow, or do, corrupt things is to tarnish one's own life. But to live righteously is the cultivate and harvest blessings.
10:8-9 A wise person understands the value of listening. Foolish people, self-righteous and overconfident, miss and ruin opportunities. It is better not to constantly be the one talking and spewing supposed-knowledge. Everyone, everywhere has something to learn from every person and every place. That is why God charges us to be diligent and vigilant, because life is a constant series of lessons that if listened to, increase our ability to thrive here.
10:10 People who are honorable, truthful, just, and kind are made secure by God. When we walk with God, we have God as our strength. But if we are living arrogantly or ignorantly, we cause ourselves to stumble (too caught up in ourselves to notice bumps and dips and cliffs). We have to be humble listeners in order to observe the ways we can improve our behavior and reactions and choices; otherwise we may not aware when we are ruining (or deflecting) good things in our lives.
10:11 Righteous people are lead by God into places of hope and inspiration, opportunity and creativity. So many elements of life are opened to the children who follow God to their doors.
But from the wicked come only violent words and harmful circumstances.
10:11 Righteous people are lead by God into places of hope and inspiration, opportunity and creativity. So many elements of life are opened to the children who follow God to their doors.
But from the wicked come only violent words and harmful circumstances.
10:12 Hate is a useless and destructive emotion. But through love all things are healed. God does not want us to live destructively, constantly in strife and tumult. Even when we must move away from a person or situation, He teaches us to do so with a peaceful heart. We should let things that need to go go, and to allow (and look forward to) God filling that space with something healthier.
10:13 When we understand that the way of life is righteousness, we have wisdom. But those who do not live righteously have no understanding and it causes them to require discipline, a tough-love instruction on the manner in which they should be living. However it is not punishment that God implements, rather it is consequence that are behavior produces. But God is able to get us through all of it when we begin to listen to and follow Him.
10:14 Wise people enjoy learning, and consider the things that they learn to be treasures they gratefully keep. But foolish people destroy the good things they have in their lives, rather than preserve and grow them.
10:15 We must be aware of not only what we are doing but also of what we are not doing that we should be. Success in one area of life is not actually successful if it causes another area of live harm.
10:16 Each person must ask themselves: am I working for the world or am I working within the kingdom of God? It is a question of priorities and values. Everything we do should be to advance righteousness and justice in the world. Sometimes that means an honest business or a kind teacher. There are many variations of how each individual can serve the kingdom. Those jobs provide wages (and that is important), but they also give us opportunity to bring righteousness to situations which had little or none. God's children working different jobs around the world plant the kingdom all around the world and in every sector of society.
But to live for wages, especially when they are procured through wicked behavior is sinful.
10:17 Listening to and following God's instruction, daily, allows us to remain on a blessed and productive path. But to refuse correction from God is to ignore Him in times when we walk off of the path. Continually ignoring God's advice causes us to get even more lost as we move through life: causing harm, missing opportunities, feeling hopeless.
10:18 It is not healthy for us to live with hatred under our skin. When we need to be honest, we can be so with God if no one else. When we tell of and explain our emotions to Him, He is able to help us sort them out and solve their original cause. Conversely, some choose to have hatred boiling under them and it only causes them to spread negativity. Thus the healing process cannot commence.
10:19-21 No good comes from blabbering on and on. God wants us to respect the right of speech. To do that, we need to be listeners, thinkers. We need to be patient and observant. When we speak it should have meaning and careful intention. To speak in such a way is to have lips of righteousness and lips of righteousness support and lead others.
But people who blabber can cause harm and miss important things.
10:22 The wealth we should aspire to in life is the be rich in blessing of the Lord. The blessing of the Lord comes with consistent joy; sorrow and shame and regret become elements of a former life. For God leads us into hope and happiness, gladness and success.
10:23-25 Evil behavior and choices are destructive. Wealth and satisfaction gained through corrupt means are temporary. Cruel behavior becomes a sport to the foolish and causes one to be caught up in many destructive whirlwinds.
A righteous person is blessed and secured by God. The hopes and prayers of their hearts are granted by Him.
10:26 When a person does not live righteously, they live lazily. They put no effort into important work like justice and compassion. And such a person is reviled by others.
10:27 Those who follow God are able to walk the everlasting path of life. But the evil wander into permanent non-existence.
10:28 The hope of the righteous is fulfilled by God. He provides for His children and loves to see them happy and thriving. But the expectations of wicked people are not met. For God ensures that things go smoothly and properly to ensure otherwise-unlikely circumstances. It is God's hand in our lives that makes possible what the world cannot.
10:29 We are strengthened as we move along the path of righteousness. The fruits, the blessings and lessons, along the way make us better, wiser, stronger people. But those who forage in the wilderness of wickedness will not find the fruits they need to truly have life. Corrupt fruits, choices, and behaviors cause one to perish.
10:30 God establishes His righteous children in life and removes the unrighteous from life.
10:31 God finds ways to give the wise platforms and opportunities to assist others in humble but impactful ways. However the perverse are inevitably thwarted and muted.
10:32 God helps the righteous to discern between good and helpful and bad and harmful. But the wicked say only things which harm.
