You fight for it tooth and nail ...

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If you desert God’s law, you’re free to embrace depravity; if you love God’s law, you fight for it tooth and nail. Practice God’s law - get a reputation for wisdom; hang out with a loose crowd—embarrass your family. God has no use for the prayers of the people who won’t listen to him. -Proverbs 28:4,7,9 MSG

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Interesting how Solomon compares our relationship with God to our relationship with the scriptures. He contrasts deserting the scripture with fighting for it tooth and nail. He even says that our prayers are affected by our relationship to holy writ. When I accepted Christ in April of 1976 I had an intense desire to know what the bible said and consequently read it through in the following year. There seems to be a connection between faith and the scriptures.

When I read "you fight for it tooth and nail" I do not think of fighting with others but contending for scriptural truth within myself. When I am tempted to sin I am faced with truth and have to fight for the truth with everything I have. When I read about practicing God's law I understand how important it is to know the scriptures well enough to be able to put it into practice. And I wonder how many of my prayers have gone unanswered because I have ignored the scriptures.

Dear Lord, help us to be people of the book, daily putting into practice what we read in the scriptures.

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