Fruit in Faithfulness: Proverbs 28 & 29 | A Proverb A Day Challenge

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Amani Talks podcast. You're
here with your host Amani on the podcast where we
discuss our Christian based topics and deepening our relationship with
the lot. Okay, so we are continuing on in Proverb
a Day, well a Proverb a Day, and today we're
going to be in chapters twenty eight twenty nine. Yeah,

(00:22):
because we left off doing a couple chapters a day
to catch up, and tomorrow we'll be finishing up with
thirty and thirty one. I cannot believe that we are
at the end of our road, you guys, And I'm
so glad that we actually are getting through this and
that you guys really held me accountable to make sure
that I was on it. People were dming me like
make sure that you're on the YouTube for the Proverb
a Day, and I'm glad for you guys. I'm glad

(00:43):
that we're doing this. So let's get into reading. What
we do is we read our chapters and we highlight
key versus that resonate with us, we talk about it,
we apply it to our lives, and we get a
little dose of wisdom for our day. So let's get
into reading our chapters all right, starting in Proverbs twenty eight,
Verse one. The wicked flee when no one pursues, but

(01:03):
the righteous are bold as a lion. Because of the
transgression of a land, many are its princes. But by
a man of understanding and knowledge, right will be prolonged.
A poor man who oppresses the poor is like a
driving rain which leaves no food. Those who forsake the
law praise the wicked. But such as keep the law
contend with them. Evil men do not understand justice, but

(01:25):
those who seek the Lord understand all better. Is the
poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in
his ways, though he be rich. Whoever keeps the law
is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons shames
his father. One who increases his possessions by usury and
extortion gathers it for him. Who will pity the poor.

(01:46):
One who turns away his ear from hearing the law
even his prayer, is an abomination. Whoever causes the upright
to go astray in an evil way, he himself will
fall into his own pit. But the blameless will inherit good.
The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but
the poor who has understanding searches him out. When the
righteous rejoice, there is great glory. But when the wicked

(02:07):
arise men hide themselves. He who covers his sins will
not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he
who hardens his heart will fall into calamity. Like a
roaring lion and a charging bear is a wicked ruler
over poor people. A ruler who lacks understanding is a

(02:28):
great oppressor, but he who hates covetousness will prolong his days.
A man burdened with bloodshed will flee into a pit,
let no one help him. Whoever walks blamelessly will be saved,
but he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall.
He who tills his land will have plenty of bread,
but he who follows frivility will have poverty enough. A

(02:50):
faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens
to be rich will not go unpunished. To show partiality
is not good, because for a piece of bread a
mid man will transgress. A man with an evil eye
hastens after riches and does not consider that poverty will
come upon him. He who rebukes a man will find
more favor afterward than he who flatters with his tongue.

(03:13):
Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says it
is no transgression, the same as companion to a destroyer.
He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife.
But he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered.
He who trust in his own heart is a fool,
But whoever walks wisely will be delivered. He who gives

(03:33):
the poor will not lack. But he who hides his
eyes will have many curses. When the wicked arise, men
hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase. I
do like verse thirteen, when it says he who covers
his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes
them will have mercy. It reminds me of the verse

(03:53):
James five p. Sixteen. Confess your trespasses to one another,
and pray for another that you may be healed. The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much so James
is pulling from this principle in Proverbs twenty eight thirteen,
that it only benefits you to confess your sin. You
hide your sin, and all you're doing is prolonging probably

(04:15):
the consequences of your own action. You're probably just making
things worse. You're letting your sin pile up on itself,
You're letting it advanced. When you finally let go and
confess it, you give people the opportunity to pray for you.
And it says in James five point sixteen the effective
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much so you're
only helping yourself by confessing your sin, which is why

(04:37):
it's so important to be in community. I know there
are a lot of people who enjoy watching church online
or maybe they're sporadic church goers, but you don't gain
a community by not being involved as much as you can.
And that's why the church body is so important. Me
and a friend we're just talking about this at brunch
earlier about Yeah, you go to church for a good word,
you go to church to hear some good preaching. Maybe

(04:59):
you know there's pass through you'd like to hear. But
the church body is the body. It's not just the word,
because you can get the word by yourself. We should
all have our own Bibles that we're reading every day.
You can get the word by yourself. It's more about
the community aspects. And when you read through acts and
you see how the early church, the First Church, has formed,
how they functioned as a body. They shared with one another.

(05:20):
They literally sold their possessions to put their money together.
Whoever was in need they gave to them. It was
very community based because we need that community to be
able to have accountability for things like this, to confess
our sins so that people can be praying for us
so that we can be saved from that sin. When
you're hiding your sin, all you're doing is letting it grow,

(05:40):
giving it room to grow, and you're also robbing yourself
of the opportunity to have people intercede for you in prayer. Also,
Verse twenty really spoke to me when it says a
faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens
to be rich will not go unpunished. And this is
just more motivation for us to not put money first
in our lives. There are so many verses that speak

(06:02):
to us when it says, seek ye first the Kingdom
of God, and all these things will be added to
you delight yourself in the Lord, and he'll give you
desires of your heart. So should our desire as Christians,
should be to be rich just for the richest sake. No,
and if you're praying for five million dollars, you most
likely aren't getting it, because that is not God's will

(06:22):
for our life, most of us at least. And Proverbs
is telling us in verse twenty, when our goal is
to be rich, that will not go unpunished. There are
a lot of people that will attest to money, changing people.
The wicked avenues that people will go down in order
to get a little dollar. When you go after money,
you'll do anything to get it. It's a very slippery slope.

(06:45):
When you chase after money, you'll do anything to get it.
And Proverbs is telling us that will not go unpunished.
It's not even talking about the sin that you will
commit to get the money. All it says is hastening
after money will not go unpunished. The love of money
will not go unpunished. Seek ye first the kingdom, and
all these things will be added to you. The Lord

(07:05):
will take care of you. You don't have to chase
after money. We have this mentality of I'm not doing
enough because my bank account doesn't look how I want
it to look. The Lord is close to the poor.
The Lord is close to people who call on him
in need. Sometimes you don't got money because God knows
that once you get it, you'll stop praying, you'll stop
seeking him. Now all of us can handle it. Paul

(07:28):
says he's learned to be content when he has much
and when he has a little. He learned to be content.
Some of us that learning process will take a little
bit longer. So, yeah, you might not get that five
mil that you're praying for because the Lord knows how
you're gonna act when you get it. People who chase
money it will not go unpunished. But other than that,
there aren't really many verses in twenty eight that really

(07:50):
stick out to me. But definitely comment and let me
know which verses I guess speak to you. We're all
in different stages of life. You probably have something that
you're just like, wait, hold up, says because this verse
really really hidden, But put that in the comments. Definitely
share your thoughts on twenty eight. But we're gonna move
on to twenty nine. He who is often rebuked and
hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remittying.

(08:12):
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but
when a wicked man rules the people. Grown whoever loves
wisdom makes his father rejoice, but a companion of Harlot's
waste his wealth. The king establishes the land by justice,
but he who receives bribes overthrows it. A man who
flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. By transgression,

(08:34):
an evil man is snared, but the righteous sings and rejoices.
The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the
wicked does not understand such knowledge. Scoffers set a city
of flame, but wise men turn away wrath. If a
wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool
rages or laughs, there is no peace. The blood thirsty

(08:55):
hate the blameless, but the upright seek his well being.
A fool vins all his feel but a wise man
holds them back. If a ruler pays attention to lies,
all his servants become wicked. The poor man and the
oppressor have this in common. The lord gives light to
the eyes of both. The king, who judges the poor
with truth his throne will be established forever. The rod

(09:17):
and rebuke give wisdom. But a child left to himself
brings shame to his mother. When the wicked are multiplied,
transgression increases, but the righteous will see their fall. Correct
your son, and he will give you rest. Yes, he
will delight to your soul. He will give delight to
your soul. Where there is no revelation, the people cast
off restraint. But happy is he who keeps the law.

(09:39):
A servant will not be corrected by mere words, for
though he understands, he will not respond. Do you see
a man hasty in his words? There is more hope
for a fool than for him. He who pampers his
servant from childhood will have him as a son. In
the end. An angry man stirs up strife, and a
furious man abounds in transgression. A man's pride will bring

(10:00):
him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.
Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life.
He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing. The
fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trust in
the Lord will be safe. Many seek the ruler's favor,
but justice for man comes from the Lord. An unjust
man is an abomination to the righteous, and he who

(10:22):
is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.
I think I definitely like twenty nine a little bit
more than twenty eight, because there are some verses that
I recognize and some things that were speaking to me
as I was reading. And definitely eleven I've heard before
a fool vince all his feelings, but a wise man
holds them back. That verse comes to me every now

(10:43):
and again, not when necessarily I'm vincing to like my
mom or like a really close friend, but I've learned
in general to really keep my mouth shut around people
who I don't know well, even people in the beginning
of when you're trying to form a relationship, right maybe
you started going to a small in your church. I
had just found it to be more wise to just

(11:04):
be a little bit more quiet in the beginning. I
don't think that you need to divulge personal information up
front in order to share bonds with people. Sometimes people
call that like trauma dumping. I don't think that you
really need to do that. I have learned that in
the end, it's more wise to learn someone's intentions with
you because and we're just calling it what it is

(11:24):
not to be negative or pessimistic. But not everyone that
you will see in a group or even in your
church will always a like you and be have the
best intentions for the information that you give them. And
I definitely have learned that the hard way to where
I felt like I was being vulnerable in a group,
specifically a church group, and it was not received with

(11:46):
the care that it should have been, and you walk
away from interactions like that feeling like, Yeah, I shouldn't
have spoken so much, I shouldn't have been so vulnerable,
so vulnerable, sorry so early with people that I really
don't know. And sometimes we do that because we're so
desperate for deep relationships and friendships. Everything these days tends

(12:06):
to be more surface level. With social media. People just
seem to be content creating friends and influencer friends, and
you know them because you see them out every now
and again, but you don't really know them, and everything
is just surface level. You know, people make friendships for
the aesthetics people have admitted to you know, I got
this friend because they look good and we go out together,
and it's just like, is that even really a friendship.

(12:27):
And I think that people are just desperate, wildly desperate
for just deep, meaningful relationships, and they will trauma dumb.
They will try to garner that closeness by telling people's
secrets and personal information, and you often walk away from
interactions like that feeling like, man, that was not smart
to do. I feel weird, like sometimes I have done

(12:50):
it to where I have shared things and my spirit
just wasn't settled about it afterwards, and that's how I know, Yeah,
you know what, I should have shown more restraint, and
that's situation and not have been so quick to be
deep and personal with people that I really don't know
that well. And also I feel like this verse can

(13:12):
be interpreted as sometimes when we vent our feelings, we
talk a little bit too much and we end up
telling people things that we should not even be saying
to begin with, maybe you're venting about a friend and
your other friend is letting you go on and on
and on, and then you end up saying something that's
really nasty. You know we already talked about in a
previous chapter. It works, as said in Proverbs, in a

(13:33):
multitude of words, sin is not far or sin abounds
when you talk a lot. And it's like, I think
overall Proverbs, of running theme that we've seen as we
are nearing the end of this book is that Proverbs
tells us a lot of times that we don't need
to talk so much. Proverbs tells us it's why to
hold back words. And I think that, well, no, I

(13:55):
think there's obviously truth and wisdom in that, because we've
seen it over and over and over again. So verse
eleven definitely spoke to me. A fool a vince to
all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.
But all in all, like I said, as we're nearing
the end of Proverbs, a lot of these things we
have talked about, I don't want to repeat any messages.

(14:16):
Y'all gonna be like, girl, you said that three chapters ago.
I feel like I've already kind of done that a
little bit. So just you know, we're just reading through it,
you guys, you know, not everything has to be some
giant revelation. One thing I've realized is when you are
reading the Bible and you think that every single time
you read, you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, this,
you know, da da da da dah. If it comes

(14:37):
to a day when you don't get that. Maybe you
go like a week and you're consistently reading every single
day and you're in Deuteronomy girl, and you just like,
I'm not getting anything from this. The consistency matters. It's
not always being like, oh, God is speaking to me
right now. You might not always feel like God is like,
oh yeah, read this, amani, because you know you need

(14:58):
this to apply to what you just want through. It's
not always like that. I think the faithfulness and just
reading is fruit in itself. And maybe you read something
and you're just like, yo, okay, Like I read it,
and it sounds really good and there are definitely things
I can take from it, I guess, you know. And
then maybe later on a week or two passes and
you remember this verse that you read a week and

(15:19):
a half ago, and you're like, mmm, I read that
in Proverbs two weeks ago. I didn't catch it two
weeks ago, but now I see. So sometimes it's just
that I'm not gonna lie and try to make things
up right now. Versus or chapters twenty eight and twenty nine.
You know, they're good, they're definitely good reads. But yeah,
I didn't really pull much from it. If you guys did,

(15:40):
definitely leave it in the comments. That's what this is
all about. But yeah, we're just getting through and we're
gonna be thirty and thirty one tomorrow and we will
be done with our proverb Day's series for the month
of July. So I appreciate you guys for tuning in.
I will see you tomorrow, Love you guys, and I'll
talk to you later. Bye.