Mold me and make me

¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹ Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.

²⁰ Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,  and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

²¹ The wise in heart are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction.

²² Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent, but folly brings punishment to fools.

²³ The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.

²⁴ Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

²⁵ There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.  Proverbs 16:18-25

Reading and pondering on these words makes me want to sing the old hymn, "Have thine  own way, Lord, Have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay.  Mold me and make me, after thy will.  While I am waiting, yielded and still."

Reading from the Proverbs and singing a hymn about letting God mold us into something He made according to his specifications, is probably one of the best things we could do. However, the world in which we live is attempting to separate itself from letting God design our lives. Instead, the world would have us follow our own ideas, our own abilities, and our own strengths. While we might love the spiritual sounding words of "Have thine own way, Lord," we have become a society that would rather follow the words of the song, "I did it my way."

I won't take up the space to give the words of that song, just remember how there were several times the theme is given.  It emphatically suggests we answer to no one, we are our own boss, we are satisfied with ourselves, blemishes and all.  When all is said and done, our lives were lived exactly the way we wanted to live, nobody told us what to do........."I did it my way."

If I read God's word correctly, doing it our way is exactly the opposite of the way our God-ordained lives are supposed to be.  Just those verses printed above let us know we cannot depend on ourselves and our ways. I do not wish to go the way of my choosing, even though it seemed the right way to me. The Bible says "in the end it leads to death." 

Instead, I want to heed God's words of instruction, and be blessed through my trust in the Lord. Read the verses from Proverbs again.  It's your choice, your way or God's way.

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