200. God’s Sovereignty And Man’s Sleep (Proverbs 20:12-13)

The Scoffer And The King

12/7/2025

Turn with me to Proverbs 20:12-13. These are our verses to study and memorize this week. To give us the fuller context of this next sub-section let’s read from verses 12-19.

Proverbs 20:12-19 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made both of them. 13 Do not love sleep, or you will become poor; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food. 14 “Bad, bad,” says the buyer, But when he goes his way, then he boasts. 15 There is gold, and an abundance of jewels; But the lips of knowledge are a more precious thing. 16 Take his garment when he becomes surety for a stranger; And for foreigners, hold him in pledge. 17 Bread obtained by falsehood is sweet to a man, But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel. 18 Prepare plans by consultation, And make war by wise guidance. 19 He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, Therefore do not associate with a gossip.

Introduction

In this chapter (Proverbs 20:2-21:1) we are looking at the scoffer and the king. Our first section (vv. 2-8) emphasized the king’s role in dealing with scoffers. Our second mini section (vv. 9-11) exposed the wicked reality of everyone’s hearts which makes them abominable to God. Now here in verses 12-19 we are looking at people’s words and actions towards one another in a nation.

It begins by the reminder that God is the one who made our ears and eyes. He has designed them for how they are to be used and He sees and hears everything that is said and done. Thus, to speak and live rightly we desperately need God’s wisdom. In light of that need for His wisdom in a nation, laziness and its solution is looked at again. Then the marketplace, commerce, foreigners, fraud, and what ought to be truly valued is focused on. Finally, planning, making war, and getting the right kind of guidance will wrap up our more general examination of dealing with people’s words and actions towards one another. These are all areas where the scoffing mocker’s foolish way of life can wreak havoc in relationships and in a nation. These are all areas where we need God’s wisdom and work to purify our wicked hearts and to guide us in righteousness with one another. Our first couple of verses will lay the foundation for this.

With that overview of the context, let’s take a closer look at Proverbs 20:12-13.

12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made both of them.

God is the one who made the ability to hear and the ability to see.

This is a rich proverb with a lot of implications for our lives and interactions. Given the immediately preceding verses on the wickedness of the human heart from a young age and how that is abominable to God, it is fitting that our next verse would bring us back to God and His wisdom as the solution to our inborn wickedness. Three main implications stand out.

First, since God made all ears and eyes, He Himself omnisciently hears and sees everything. He made the very ability to hear and see. He hears and sees perfectly, everywhere, all the time. Nothing escapes His attention. He sees, hears, and knows all that we hear, see, think, desire, say, and do. We are accountable to Him for all of those things. That is a sobering reality that should affect all of our behavior with one another. This verse is put here to frame our ongoing examination of the scoffer’s way of life and the kinds of behaviors that build up or tear down a nation. Nothing will ultimately be gotten away with, because God sees it. If we all lived in light of these truths, how much different would our nations, communities, and families be? More importantly, we should ask if we live in light of the reality that God sees and hears everything we do? He sees what we do in our homes, on our phones, and in our thoughts.

Secondly, there is the implication in this verse that God designed our ears and eyes for a purpose. He is the one who made our ability to take in, notice, experience, and learn through them. Therefore, since God made both our ears and our eyes, we ought to use them for the purposes He designed them. We ought not to use them like the scoffing mocker who listens to wickedness and who pursues looking at sinful behaviors to fulfill his evil lusts. We ought not to live like the fool of Psalm 14—as if God did not exist or does not have supreme authority. Despite what our world or our flesh would tell us, there are indeed wrong uses of our ears and eyes. There are also right uses.

In his commentary on Proverbs, Charles Bridges says that the ear and the eye are the two senses by which we take in information.¹ If we would but use them as intended by God, they are how we can gain wisdom. That is what God designed them for—to understand and dwell on what is good. Those senses are how we can learn God’s Word and know right from wrong. They are how we can gain understanding. They are how we can be taught. They are how we can learn about God and come to truly know Him.

Taking this one step further, since God made our ears and eyes, we are also accountable to God for what we do with what we learn through them. It is not simply enough to know about God and His creation. Through them we are to come to truly know God so that we can love and serve Him in right ways. Through them we can also come to truly know His creation so that we can love, serve, and live in right relation to other people and to the rest of creation.

Third (and inseparably connected to our second point), this proverb foundationally tells us that God is the one who enables the actual ability to truly hear, understand, believe, and obey the truth.² Our sin has made us spiritually dead to God and the truth. He is the one who opens ours eyes to the truth so that we truly see, believe, and follow the truth. The expression “hearing ear” does not just mean an ear that hears. It is an ear that walks in obedience to what is heard. This is really hearing and really seeing. We saw that back in Proverbs 15:31 where this exact same expression was used (cf. also Proverbs 25:12).

Proverbs 15:31 He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof Will dwell among the wise.

This is not just a matter of hearing and learning facts. It is learning, believing, and acting in light of it. Thus, in its fullest sense this proverb is directly stating that God is the one who enables this learning, believing, and doing. He is how the physical hearing turns to understanding, faith, and obedience. Without God creating within us hearing ears and seeing eyes we are dumb, ignorant, and unable to truly understand. We are blind, uncomprehending, and unable to truly see, believe, and obey. As Ephesians 2 repeatedly says, we were dead in our trespasses and sins and our salvation is not by our work. In our natural state we have no hope and are without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:1, 5, 8, 9, 12)

Thus this verse once again teaches us the great doctrines of God’s sovereign, predestining, saving grace that extends throughout Scripture. Proverbs 20:9 and 11 just got done teaching us that naturally all of us are dead in our sins, unable to purify our hearts. Now we are directly being told that it is God who makes the believing hearts and the understanding eyes. He is the one who turns knowledge of facts into faith and obedience. He is the one who gives understanding and turns it into belief and a changed life of righteousness. It is just as Ephesians 2:10 says. We are God’s workmanship. He did it. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God before ordained that we should walk in. He gets the praise. We have nothing in which to boast. We cannot work it out in our own lives. We cannot purify our own hearts. God alone can do all of this. He even gives us the faith to believe. Thus it is Him and His work and His wisdom alone that we ought to seek to have purified hearts, to be able to live righteously before God and one another, to avoid becoming scoffing mockers, and to deal justice within a nation.

Scriptural Example: When we look to Scripture for an example of this proverb, we can do so from different angles given the different implications of this verse. From the standpoint of God’s omniscient awareness of everything that is said and done Scripture’s examples are almost limitless.

Adam and Eve tried to hide from God after their sin. God saw and intervened. Cain tried to play dumb about having killed Abel. God saw and intervened. David sinned with Bathsheba and tried to cover it up by manipulating an unwitting Uriah, and then by his death when that did not work. God saw and intervened. Wicked king Ahab tried to disguise himself in the battle that God said he would die in. God saw and intervened. Jonah tried to run from God. God saw and intervened. Nebuchadnezzar ignored the warning through a dream from God about his pride and still exalted himself. God saw and intervened.

The Pharisees tried to pretend they were holy and righteous. God saw their hypocrisy and intervened. The rich young ruler claimed to have kept the law from his youth. God saw his hidden sin and intervened. The woman at the well tried to pretend her life was not what it actually was morally. God saw and intervened. Peter tried to pretend he was unbreakably loyal to Jesus. God saw and intervened. Ananias and Sapphira tried to hide how much they had gotten for the sale of their land in order to have both some of the money and the praise as if they had given it all. God saw and intervened.

While pretending to lead the church righteously, Diotrephes wanted to be pre-eminent and domineeringly have his own way. God saw and intervened. Corinth supposedly wanted to be loving and accepting. But God saw they were tolerating and approving of immorality in their midst (as did Pergamum, and Thyatira). God saw and intervened. The church at Ephesus had a reputation for sound doctrine and right living. But they had lost their first love. God saw and intervened. The church at Laodicea thought they were rich and doing well. God saw that they were actually poor, wretched, blind, and naked. He intervened.

God sees everything and is the living God. He is actively involved in dealing with all of history and even our lives individually. He will intervene as appropriate to judge us, discipline us, grow us, teach us, guide us, or encourage us. Are we living in light of these truths about His omniscience? Is His intervention going to be positive, corrective, or eternally destructive in our lives? We need His salvation, His wisdom, His guidance, and His help. Are we seeking it? Or are we trying to hide from Him and go our own way?

From the additional standpoint of God’s sovereign work to turn people’s ears into hearing ears and to truly open their eyes, the example that God Himself gave in Romans 9 stands out. In Romans 9:7-9 we see that God chose Isaac over Ishmael. Then in Romans 9:10-16 we see that God chose to give His salvation, blessing, and promises to Jacob, not Esau. God chose to have mercy and compassion on Jacob to open his eyes and ears and to work to make him a true, obedient child of the promise. As that chapter of Romans 9 records, God did not do that for Ishmael, Esau, or Pharaoh.

On our own, our hearts are wicked, and we cannot purify them ourselves. We must stop trusting in, relying on, and pursuing our own way of salvation. We must stop pursuing our own so-called wisdom for life. As Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” He also said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” We cannot earn it, deserve it, buy it, or even make true belief within ourselves. Only God can give us hearing ears which listen, believe, and obey. Only God can give seeing ears to perceive, trust, and live out the truth. Are you trusting in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of your sins and for God’s eternal life? Run to Him. Ask Him to give you the faith to believe. Ask Him to open your eyes and ears. Trust Him alone!

Even after that, we must stop trusting ourselves to continue to be obedient Christians. It is only “in Christ” that sin can be overcome. As 1 John 5:4 says, faith “is the victory that has overcome the world.” It is only by walking in the Spirit that we are able to avoid the desires of the flesh as Galatians 5 talks about.

Galatians 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

Later on in the chapter Paul adds this:

Galatians 5:24-25 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

We will only continue having hearing ears and seeing eyes by continuing to have our minds renewed by God’s Spirit within us. That is the only way will be guided by God’s wisdom. That is the only way that we can have the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5 and avoid the works of the flesh that chapter also talks about. The salvation that was started by faith in God’s work can only be continued and completed by God’s work within us. Trust Him for that day by day. As Philippians 1:5 says,

Philippians 1:5 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

We are still fully responsible to work diligently at being obedient as Philippians 2:12-13 says, but notice where this ability comes from:

Philippians 2:12-13 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

The daily Christian life is not simply to be by our own effort. Rather it is to be by faith as we walk in the Spirit because it is God who is at work in us. Unless He continues to give us hearing ears and seeing eyes our obedience will falter and fail. We must go to Him for that. We must live in His redeeming, creating, perfecting, and sanctifying power. It is the only power which can purify our hearts, make us righteous, and enable true obedience.

Proverb in Comparison: When we compare this proverb with the rest of Scripture we see that 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 reiterates for us the big picture of our natural blindness, God’s wisdom, and God’s work which is needed to open our minds and make us understand and obey. Paul begins by contrasting this wisdom as being different from anything else in this world.

1 Corinthians 2:6-16 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.

When we turn from our sin and from trusting in our so-called wisdom to trusting in Jesus as our Lord and Savior God gives us of His very own Spirit to indwell us. He makes us to truly hear, understand, believe, and obey. He makes us to truly see, perceive, trust, and live in the truth. The natural man cannot accept and understand this wisdom of God. It only comes upon those who have been born again from above and have received of God’s Spirit. With God’s Spirit we actually have the mind of Christ testifying within our hearts of God’s salvation, of God’s love, of God’s power, of God’s righteousness, of God’s truth, and so much more. As we walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh, we will walk in obedience and righteousness. God will purify and sanctify us. He will make us holy. He will enable us to live in this new, redeemed way of life. This is God’s miraculous work in our lives which moves from its beginning to completion in order to enable true hearing and seeing, true understanding, true belief, true obedience, and true righteousness. This is God’s personal work in us that none of us can begin or continue on our own.

Truth in Connection: As we connect this proverb to our lives, it becomes crystal clear that in dealing with our inability to purify our own hearts, and in dealing with the reality that it is God who creates the obedient life, we must go to Him and Him alone for our hearts to be purified and for our lives to become what they ought to be. We cannot do it. The question then is, who are you going to in order to know and live out the truth? If we are going anywhere but to God—who made the hearing ear and the seeing eye—it will only end up in failure, lies, wickedness, and ultimately the judgment of God.

Likewise, for a nation to thrive and base itself on righteousness and wisdom it will need to go to God for it. It will need to go to the one who made the hearing ear, and the seeing eye. It will need to go to the one who can change hearts and enable true righteous living. A nation or a life built on anything less will falter and fail when the natural wickedness of people produce the works of the flesh that Galatians 5 describes.

As we move into the following proverbs in the rest of this section we need to bear these foundational truths in mind. We our accountability to God who hears and sees everything. Likewise, we need to go to God for the wisdom and heart change that will make walking in His wisdom possible.

May we commit, as followers of Jesus, to walk by the Spirit so that we do not carry out the works of the flesh. May we let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly so that our hearts want to walk in God’s righteousness. May we walk by faith in God who is at work in us both to desire and do His good pleasure. Without this, all our efforts will fail. Our fleshly motivations and sin will end up overcoming us. But it does not have to be this way. With the mind of Christ in us and the power of Jesus’ resurrection life working through us we can truly have the obedient life of the hearing ear and the seeing eye created in us. Let us live in the truth of this wisdom. Have you gone to Jesus for a hearing ear? Are you going to God to daily change your heart and give you a seeing eye that walks in true obedience to righteousness?

Our next proverb continues this picture in a very practical way.

13 Do not love sleep, or you will become poor; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.

The laziness of loving sleep leads to poverty. Instead of that, we are to industriously open our eyes to the work in front of us and have the satisfaction of reaping what we sow.

While ingenuously continuing the metaphor of the God produced seeing eye, this proverb gives another facet of our recent sluggard proverbs (Proverbs 19:15, 24, 20:4). It especially correlates with Proverbs 19:15.

Proverbs 19:15 Laziness casts into a deep sleep, And an idle man will suffer hunger.

Our present proverb adds to that. It expands suffering hunger into the more general “become poor.” Then, more positively, it specifically adds the solution. Get busy working and be satisfied with food. These are not just suggestions. The “open” your eyes and the “be satisfied” are actually both imperative commands.

Before getting to those strong commands at the end, our proverb starts with a volitional command on what we are not to do.³ We should not and must not love sleep, lest we become poor.

One of the strong temptations that most of us will face in life at some point or other—or perhaps at many points—will be to let ourselves get into bad habits of loving sleep. Often that can be coupled with a desire to avoid doing the work that we need to do. We avoid our responsibilities and problems by going back to sleep. We get into patterns of lounging around and frittering away the productive hours of the day on sleep, rest, or other empty pursuits. We then do not do what needs to be done. In our day and age of cell phones, tablets, TV’s, and computers, with their games, movies, TV shows, and other entertainment options those pursuits could very well also be included here. They offer nearly limitless distractions which almost mindlessly keep us from our responsibilities and what is most important. If we allow ourselves to love any of these things we will waste our lives and become poor (physically, spiritually, or both). We will lose (or never gain) our real purpose and motivation in life. We will become lazy sluggards who are not productive in the way that God designed for us to work and live. We will waste our lives.

This falling in love with sleep, ease, repose, self-gratification, endless phone scrolling, games, and other such things can happen at any time in life. Yet, there is a special susceptibility in the teen years because it is true that our bodies need extra sleep with all the growth and development that is occurring. Likewise, at those ages we are often on the beginning side of developing self-discipline. Thus with all that, there comes the added real temptation to make extra sleep and laziness a general habit and pursuit in life. Another time of life where this temptation can particularly increase is in retirement when all of the sudden we have a lot of extra time and far fewer responsibilities. We must not let such purposeless, self-focused habits of life become true of us. If it does, it will have repercussions on many other areas of life.

What is the solution to this? Our verse gives us two direct commands. First, open your eyes. Shake off the lethargy. Live for the real purposes for which you were created. Develop discipline and self-control in your life like Paul did in 1 Corinthians 9:23-27. He would not let his bodily desires control and enslave him. Rather he disciplined his body and made it his slave. Do not let yourself give in to the temptations to love sleep or similar such things which avoid work and enable a pampered laziness or a so-called “self-care” focused life. Open your eyes. Live for God’s purpose and design for you.

God has ordained it that we earn our food from our industrious work. In light of our previous proverb where God alone creates the seeing eye, His command to open our eyes means that we need to stop closing our eyes to His wisdom. We need to look to Him for His wisdom. We need to look to Him for His design and purpose throughout life. We need to look to Him in faith to walk in obedience to His design. We need to be productive by His enablement in what truly matters. As Christians we are not to seek to work to amass temporary riches. Rather, we are to seek first the kingdom of God. We are to work for God’s eternal kingdom and use what we have in this life to accomplish His eternal goals there.

Secondly, God also has ordained and commanded that we are to be satisfied with the fruit of our work. This touches on the important element of contentment and being satisfied with God’s design for our lives. God designed for us to work and provide for our needs. He made for us to be fulfilled by that result and to enjoy those blessings from God. He did not design for us to go hungry or sponge off others while we are able to work and meet our needs. On the other side of things, He also did not design for us to work and then covet what others have. He designed for us to find satisfaction in the work of our own hands. He gives us each abilities, gifts, and opportunities that He wants us to use for His glory. As we do that for Him it will give us a joy, purpose, peace, and satisfaction that no thing and no one can take away from us.

The problem comes when we allow covetousness, envy, or selfishness overtake our perspective. This second command tells us not to allow that. God did not make us to be someone else or to necessarily have what someone else has. So do not aim for those things and make idols out of them. God made us who we are with the gifts, talents, abilities, and situations that we have. Use those to your utmost for God. Diligently develop your God given abilities and spiritual gifts to be used for His glory. Then enjoy using them for God’s kingdom and enjoy the God-given fruit of your labors. Be content and satisfied in that. Do not worry that you are not someone else. Do not try to be someone else. You are not them. You are not accountable to God for who you are not or what you cannot do. You are only accountable to God for who He made you to be and for what He designed you to do. Therefore, aim to be the best that you can be as the person that God made you to be for His glory. If you do it for Him, it will bring Him honor and He will be pleased with you. Open your eyes. Look to God for His wisdom. Walk in it. Enjoy it. Be satisfied in it.

Scriptural Example: When we look to Scripture for an example of this the Proverbs 31 woman gives an exemplary picture. She rises early. She works hard. She has purpose in everything she does. She builds up her family. She provides for others needs. She uses her gifts and abilities in each area of life for good. In line with that, the commands in Titus 2 for both men and woman, as well as the character traits and behaviors of deacons and elders in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3, give us helpful descriptions of what this kind of life should look like.

In an actual person, Ruth gives a more embodied example. She worked hard. She did not shirk her responsibilities even when life had extraordinary hardships. She did not abandon her family. She was loyal, hard working, and faithful to God’s purposes for her.

Another concrete example can be seen in the life of Joseph. He too was industrious, hard working, and kept his eyes on God’s design for life. In slavery in Egypt he did not settle with doing as little as he could to get by. He worked his hardest and God rewarded him with being put over all of Potiphar’s household. When that came crashing down with the lies of Potiphar’s wife he ended up in prison, but he did not just languish there and bemoan his fate. No! He did what he could. He remained trustworthy and hard working. Somehow he ended up helping the jailer and gaining his trust to the extent that he was able to supervise everything that went on there without himself even being supervised (Genesis 39:21-23)!

He then used his God given gifts and abilities to interpret the dreams of the baker and the cup bearer, and then eventually for Pharaoh himself. In that situation he could not help but also give a wise plan to deal with the coming time of bounty and then famine. That’s how his mind worked to produce good. When he was subsequently put in authority over all of Egypt to carry it out, he industriously did so. Through that he was used by God to preserve the whole world during its prolonged 7 year famine. With all of his blessings he used and enjoyed his privileges, yet he never forgot God. He kept his perspective on God’s future promises to him and to his whole extended family in Canaan. Thus he worked for their best interest even after all their abuses. He saw and trusted that God worked out for good even what others had meant for evil towards him. He was able to be content and not hold a grudge against his brothers. It was enough for him to trust God and to aim to faithfully work out God’s purposes for his life.

As Christians that too is how we ought to live in this life. We cannot control the circumstances, but we can use our gifts and abilities to serve God to the best that we are able. We can trust Him. We can learn to be content and satisfied with what He provides and with His ultimately good purposes. Like Joseph we may not get to see all the fulfillment of God’s promises in this life. We may also have many hardships. But we can learn to rest in their future fulfillment. So let us work hard for God’s purposes. Let us enjoy His good gifts that are the fruit of our labor, but let us not mistake them for what eternally matters. Like Joseph, let us entrust our bones and every aspect of our future to God with His eternal promised land being prepared for us.

Proverb in Comparison: When we compare our proverb to the rest of Scriptures we find another interesting facet about this need to be diligent and to not love sleep in Psalm 127. This is a Psalm that Solomon himself also wrote.

Psalm 127:1-2 A Song of Ascents, of Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

While rising early and working hard will bring food, rising early and working by itself is not the goal. What we do needs to be by faith, to be for God, and to be done in His will. If we are workaholics and are simply amassing treasures here on this earth, or if we work because we do not trust God but rather only our own efforts then we have missed the point of work. We need to make sure that we “open our eyes” not just to the work that is in front of us to get food, but also to God’s purpose and design for our lives. Everything needs to be done in light of Him and His wisdom. Everything needs to be done in light of His work of redemption and sanctification. Then, we also need to find contentment and satisfaction in His good purposes and design for us. Otherwise life and work will itself become an endless and pointless rat-race of pursuing an always elusive and unsatisfying “more.” Work for God’s purposes, and enjoy them.⁴

Truth in Connection: As we connect this proverb to our lives we need to honestly evaluate what we love. Do we love sleep? Do we love our ease, entertainment, laziness, pampering, or self-care? Is our goal to get to retirement so that we do not have to work anymore?

Or, on the other side, do we work, work, and work to get more and yet never find satisfaction and contentment? Do you find yourself always trying to have what other people have? Do you find yourself trying to be like other people and to accomplish what other people do even when that is not your gifting, ability, or situation?

If you find yourself on either side of this you are missing out on the purpose that God has for your life. You have made a god out of yourself, out of work itself, or even out of God’s purpose for other people. This is not how God designed us to live. Follow God’s commands in this verse. Open your eyes. See God’s plan for you in His Word. Trust Him for it. Depend on Him for it. Live faithfully as who He designed you to be in carrying out your part within His church and as a disciple maker. Then, enjoy what He gives you as the reward of your labor. Be content in Him and His purposes for you. Live for His eternal kingdom. Look for your eternal reward and home with Him. Let yourself be satisfied and content in Jesus. Do not be deceived by the lies of the world on what you need or what your purpose in life is. Trust in God’s wisdom, righteousness, and redeemed way of life.

If you have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you will not be able to do this. He is the only one who can truly open our eyes, take away our sin, and make us righteous. If we live trying to fulfill the purposes for which we were created without the one who created us we will fail. We will never find true contentment, joy, peace, satisfaction, purpose, righteousness, forgiveness, or life in anyone or anything else. We need God and His wisdom. The problem is that our sin has separated us from Him and earned us death and judgment. But “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty of the sin of all those who trust in Him. Then He rose from the grave, overcame sin and death and gives to us His righteousness and life. Repent of your sin. Surrender to Him. Trust Him as your Lord and Savior. Then trust Him day by day to walk with Him in His wisdom.

Conclusion

If you have any questions on any of this or want help in coming to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior please come talk with us. We are available. Let’s pray.

© 2025, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible^® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org