Trading Heavens of Brass for Apples of Gold

(Proverbs 25:11 KJV)  A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Somewhere in my past I seem to remember a devotional book called Apples of Gold.  If I were not working in Proverbs I might want to steal the title.  What this is saying to me today is a reminder that the Holy Spirit speaks to us through other people.  It is not that they are consciously brimming over with wisdom but that the Spirit of God can use their “word spoken” (1697) to stir something in us.

Whether the words are spoken “fitly” (right circumstances NASB) (655) is more dependent on our receptivity to the voice of God than the intent of the speaker.  At school I am always having kids ask for “help.”  I am perfectly willing to help but not to “help”.  Their definition of help is to show them the answer.  After a few attempts to manipulate me into doing their work for them they will say in frustration, “My other teachers help me.  You are a bad teacher.”  They mean it as an insult.  I take it as a compliment.  My goal is not to give them an answer but to teach them to think so they can find the answers. 

God often works this way.  We want it easy and now.  He wants individuals created in His image to learn to use the qualities He has given us that make us more than the animals. 

So?  Don’t just look for the silver lining, go for the gold.  Listen, think and learn, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.