Last summer, a few trees fell in the woods. This particular Ash tree was over 75′ tall and when it fell over, I couldn’t help but notice the small root system which had held it up for the past 30-40 years (I haven’t counted the rings exactly).
In emotionally charged days like these, the value in being prudent and rational is wise and necessary. God said that we did not need to live with a spirit of fear, rather to live with power, love and a sound mind. That last one is a critical and often ignored component. In the Greek, that word is sophronimos, meaning self control, prudence and discipline. It is used in I Timothy 1:7, and essentially means to be safe-minded, using sensibility and prudence in your behavior, especially as it fits a certain situation. You are acting out God’s will by doing what He calls sound reasoning. Solomon — said to be the wisest man who ever lived — talks a lot about this very issue. In Proverbs 14:30, he says that a sound mind makes for a robust, healthy body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones. So having a sound mind actually causes you to be physically stronger and healthy. Those who stay living in the chaos of constantly shifting emotion will experience corrosion — meaning their lives will be in stages of decay … quite literally, they will be falling apart. Your bones are like the frame of a car – it supports the car’s engine, drivetrain and body panels. When it gets rusted out and weak, it will fail and the car will no longer be able to support the weight of the parts and pieces, let alone carry passengers. The same is true when your bones are corroded — no longer can you function with prudence and wisdom. Rather you are, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, like infants, blown about by every wind, unstable in all your ways.
Solomon also says that those who are gullible believe everything they are told. Those who are prudent sift and weigh every word (14:15) It is interesting to me that Luke echoes this in the book of Acts when he references how the Berean Jews eagerly listened to the message that was being spoken by Paul. The thing is though, they were not gullible nor did they believe just because it was the Apostle Paul who said it. The verse goes on to say that they would diligently examine the scriptures every day to see if what Paul was saying was true (Acts 17:11). This is evidence of a sound mind operating in prudence and wisdom. Today we live in an age where social media and fake news has replaced due diligence in reporting or researching. So many people just re-post stuff on Facebook or re-send emails without doing even a simple search to see if it is even true. They see a headline and believe it, without even reading the article. I often see stuff like: “I don’t know if this is true, but it might be legit so why not pass it along.” It’s madness! The truth is that people are gullible and get sucked in to the emotionally-charged click-bait nature of these type of stories, and without examining the source or the facts, they pass along the information, often with shock and offense at what is being pedaled. And from my experience, it seems that many Christians are some of the most gullible offenders. The Bible makes it pretty clear that it is wisdom to sift and weigh before making a decision or coming to an opinion. The Holy Spirit is there to guide us and show us truth in the midst of a confusing swirl of information.
Common sense is a good quality. This is addressed in 13:16 when Solomon says, A common sense person LIVES good sense. Fools litter the country with silliness. In 14:18, he states, Foolish dreamers live in a world of illusion; but wise realists plant their feet on the ground. Some may see this verse as him coming down on having dreams or a vivid imagination. But I see it more as those who just live in fantasy land without much regard to life in the real world. They have many dreams or notions but can’t accomplish any of them because they have no grounding… no root system. Like was mentioned above, these people are easily blown about by emotion and whim. God has given us a path and destiny, created specifically for us while we were still in the womb of our mothers. And with that, he has given us the ability to dream, and when we know Him and are seeking his will for our lives those dreams will so often begin to line up with the destiny that has been planted deep within us. Additionally, he shows us in books like Proverbs, how to live a life of wisdom, common sense and prudence. So these “realists” — those who are wise — will plant their feet on the ground and LIVE. Jeremiah 17:5-8 says that those who focus on their own imaginations and put their trust in themselves and in others will be a barren wasteland and dwell in the parched places of the desert. But those who put their trust and confidence in the Lord — they will be like mighty trees, planted by that deep river of his love, whose roots go down deep into the rich soil of the Word, stretching downward to the wells of truth and wisdom. They don’t worry when things get hot or when there is drought, because their source of life is found in Christ and they continually bear fruit that proves it!
To battle fear and the constant darts of the enemy, God has given us three critical components: We must operate in love. The two greatest commandments are to love Him and love others. We must know how to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit (and this includes wearing the armor described in Ephesians 6). And finally, we must operate with stability, discipline, prudence and wisdom; all qualities of a sound mind and a life that produces fruit because it is rooted deep!