Proverbs 19:3

The book of Proverbs gives us insights into so many different areas of life. The book gives us instruction on how to live our lives for God. Here is a proverb that gives us insight about the ruin our choices can bring upon us:

Proverbs 19:3

The foolishness of man ruins his way,

And his heart rages against the Lord..

Proverbs 19:3 (ESV)

When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin,

his heart rages against the LORD.

A proverb is a way to teach wisdom in a simple way with a word picture, or with contrasting or complimentary statements. This proverb gives us insight about what causes us problems in our lives. The first line tells us why we run into some struggles in our lives and the second expands on it by telling us what we do about the life we ruin. Although there are certainly some great examples of a ruined life that is no fault of the individual (Job the best example), in most cases this proverb gives us insight into the most popular reason for our demise … our own foolishness. It is not some cosmic problem that cause problems in our lives. It is, according to Solomon’s wisdom, our own folly. It is when we make foolish choices that we cause ruin in our lives. And, once we make those choices, we rage against God asking, Why? Why? When we look back over our lives we will have to admit most of the issues we have that have caused us problems is the lack of the Fear of God and poor decisions to not Fear him. What choices are you making?  Our own guilt and shame rise in our hearts because of our own foolishness.  We sin against God, fail to confess the sin as sin and ask God to forgive and heal.  Then we wonder why we feel shame.  Our "heart rages against the Lord" because our will does not recognise God's authority in our lives.  That brings on shame.