Proverbs Chapter 12

Proverbs 12:1-3 ~ The Meaning to Life

If you find yourself in a situation where there is something about your life that is being corrected, embrace it. Do not hate it. Life is a discipline. If there is something that needs to be corrected, right now is the time. We do not have another time through in life. This is it. Every time you go through these things and you seek the Lord in it, He makes permanent changes and transformations in your mind and heart. So, if you are one of those people that says, “God is constantly exposing all of my weaknesses and all of my failures.” Great! The more the better.

God says, “There needs to be permanent changes in your life or eventually who you are as a person and your habits are going to destroy you, so we are going to expose this. We are going to exploit this. We are going to bring this to the surface not to show you what a bad person you are, but because we need to make permanent changes in your character.”

Proverbs 12:4-6 ~ The Importance of Correct Counsel

There are two things that happen in every circumstance and trial in a believer’s life.  First, I get to experience Jesus Christ Himself sustaining me.  And second, my life gets to be a display of the Lord’s glory and His faithfulness.

In the midst of my weakness and I cry out, “Oh, Lord, help me!” he sustains me through it, and other people see Him.

Of course, they see me in my human weakness too, but I have come to a point that I want people to see my human weakness in the midst of His strength because that is reality.  People look at me and say, "I am weak, and I am hurting, and I need Christ."

And I am able to say, "Me too, and I have Christ, and He sustains me."  That is the good news.

Proverbs 12:7-14 ~ Discipline for Character

The house of righteous people will stand.  Righteousness means staying on the right path with the Lord, doing what is right in His eyes.  If you do what is right in the sight of the Lord, you will not be moved.  Period.

By building your life based on the words of Christ, the foundation will become solid.  Then, when the storm comes, the house will stand.  This promise applies to you individually as well as to your household.  However, those who just listen to the words of Christ, but they do not base their life on them, when the storm comes, the house will fall.  Storms are going to come to everybody and every household.  And based on what we have been laying as our foundation for the weeks and months prior to the storm will determine how we stand.  We have the promise of Christ.

Proverbs 12:15-23 ~ Discipline for Communication

Do you know that under the influence of the Holy Spirit a person can speak words that bring healing to a very troubled soul?  The tongue can flow and be refreshing and bless people, but it can also be used to curse people. Our communication should be a means of blessing others.  It should be used for edification—that is, for building people up.

So, once Christ saves us, His desire is for His Spirit to use our communication and our expressions toward others as a vehicle of His grace. People’s lives are beaten down. People are having hard days.  I am not talking about positive thinking.  I am talking about the grace of God and ministering His grace.  His grace leads people to Christ.

Proverbs 12:24-28 ~ Instruction Concerning Discipline with Regards to Conduct

Once the life of Christ comes into a person’s heart, that person now has the fullness of life.  And as we grow in Christ, we come to realize I do not need anything outside of what I have in Christ.  That is the message of the scriptures.  Be content with what you have.  Stop looking for happiness and satisfaction outside of you.  You have the fullness of the Spirit of God living inside of you.  That is what you are trying to satisfy, and He is already in you.

That is why Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, "If you drink of the water of this well, you will thirst again; but if you drink of the water I give, you will never thirst again."  It will be a constant fountain of spiritual water that is overflowing and giving satisfaction to a person’s life.  How much I realize this shows by my decision making.  If I am still constantly looking for activities and people in life for my happiness, I have not realized this.  Either I do not have the Spirit of Christ because there is no satisfaction, or I do have Christ but I am still looking to be happy with the things of life and it will be a waste of time.