Proverbs
30: 32 If you have been foolish in
exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your
mouth.
33 For as the churning of milk produces butter,
And
wringing the nose produces blood,
So the
forcing of wrath produces strife.
Proverbs
30: 32, 33. You know those people who
like to brag about how they got somebody fired, undermined somebody’s
reputation, took credit for someone else’s work, or stole somebody’s man/ woman?
God
says that those people need to just SHUT UP TALKING.
In
Proverbs 30: 32, the Lord says, “Shh!
Shhhhh! Put your hand over your
mouth and zip it!”
Quit
telling folks that God promised you somebody else’s spouse. God doesn’t wanna hear that mess.
Stop
praying for God to give you your boss’s job while your boss is sitting in his
office with no plans to quit or retire.
You’re asking God to make somebody else unemployed so you can get a
raise.
Shut
yo’ mouth. The Lord ain’t hearing that.
Stop
driving through occupied neighborhoods, naming and claiming a house where a
family already lives. You’re asking God
to make those people homeless so you can get a granite countertop----- in Jesus
name.
When
you foolishly pursue personal promotion with no concern for the damage your ambition
does to others, you might as well stop talking about the favor of God, because when
you act like that, you are outside of God’s will. And you can’t expect God’s favor while you are outside of His will.
You
lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and
war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you
may spend it on your pleasures.
(James
4: 2, 3)
If
you take a smooth container of fresh milk and agitate it over time, then the
smooth becomes lumpy. It’s natural cause
and effect based on how God has designed milk.
If
you grab your perfectly healthy nose, and twist and bend it, your nose will
bruise and bleed. It’s a logical result
based on the way God has designed your nose.
In
the same way, if you inject yourself into peaceful situations and churn up drama
to force people out of the positions you want for yourself, then over time you
will feel the natural and logical effect of how God has designed life: God will withdraw his favor and mercy, and
you will be left spiritually naked and alone to reap the pain and suffering of
all the strife you have sown.
Ambition
isn’t sin. The problem is SMALL-MINDED
ambition.
It’s
ambitious to want a better job. Nothing’s
wrong with that. Small-minded ambition is
when you want a better job, but you think that the only better job the one somebody
already has. The world is bigger than
what’s right in front of you.
It’s
ambitious to want a nicer car. Small-minded
ambition is when you act like the only nice car made on earth is the one in the
yard across the street. Get your own,
and for goodness’ sake be individual enough not to buy the exact same make and
model that’s in the yard across the street.
Small-minded
ambition wants what they have.
Godly
ambition wants what God has for you.
Small-minded
ambition is not prosperity. It’s destroying
your brother so you can have your brother’s stuff.
That’s
coveting.
That’s
sin.
When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not
hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put
away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil. (Isaiah
1: 15-16)
In
other words, Hush yo’ mouth, and quit
all that mess.
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall
Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
If you enjoy our work, please help support our work
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541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
