Whatever looks triumphant—the people and things we hold out as the absolute measure of concrete, dependable success—still meets death that tramples it. Isaiah warns that rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the Lord will perish. What then are we going to hold onto?
How can those who have known God’s rescue still chase worldly compromise that looks so much like success? That is the exasperated cry of Isaiah 1:21 as the faithful city becomes a harlot—once full of justice, now only murderers, its silver turned to dross.
We can’t always discern in the moment what’s right and wrong on our own. We need to be focused on God’s glory so we can see where the dangerous paths are.
The World says, “if you don’t know what to do just do something.” God says, “if you don’t know what to do, follow me.”
We have so many different directions we could follow, but God has a particular one for us that allows us to be part of a masterpiece rather than a cacophony.
If the wisdom the world offers so often seems to point to doing the wrong thing, do we want to give up on wisdom entirely?
We can say all the right things about Jesus and still expect the wrong things from him. In Luke 19, the crowd welcomes its King with praise, peace, and glory—but what happens when the Savior we celebrate does not pursue the earthly victory, security, or power we wanted?
How do so many other people seem to fall for the “wide gate” of worldliness and we don’t? Or have we fallen for it and we don’t even realize it?
What is our answer to God’s Wisdom? We have to answer the call — it is just a question of how.
What does success really look like? As we continue a series on Agur’s wise words in Prov. 30, we consider how we grasp for success.