Day 62, Year 1 Forsaking Foolishness and Denying Yourself

“Forsake your folly and live, And proceed in the way of understanding.” (Proverbs 9:6 NASB)

“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'” (Luke 9:23 NKJV)

The term “live” in the first verse of today is chayah in Hebrew, here it means “to resolve various difficulties and live prosperously.” This is another interpretation of “choose life, that you may live” mentioned at the very beginning of the devotional series. In other words, people who forsake their foolishness and choose life can live a wonderful life and walk the path of godly understanding. The word “folly” in the first verse comes from pethi in Hebrew, which also means “simplicity, naivety.” According to a Chinese translation, it specifically refers to a person’s inability to comprehend or understand deeply. Simple-minded people are accustomed to living in darkness, or in a state of not discerning or without understanding. Thus, they need to change their mindset or state and abandon the mentality of not seeking to understand.

The “deny himself” in the second verse is traditionally interpreted as denying or negating all our preferences, desires, etc., in order to take up our cross and follow Jesus. However, some might question whether the process of denying oneself is a form of dehumanizing. So, I think forsaking foolishness might be a better interpretation of “deny yourself.” In reality, we cannot leave behind our own will to deny ourselves, because denying ourselves requires willpower. Similarly, we cannot cast aside our ability to bear the cross and follow Him, because we have to “take up” our own “cross” daily to look upon and follow Jesus.

Hence, what should people forsake? Perhaps they are all the habits, thoughts, emotions, perspectives, relationships, etc., considered foolish in the eyes of the Lord. Everything that is not of Jesus, or cannot be transformed or used by Him should be discarded. It is because those who have not believed in Him often define themselves by various things mentioned above. Contrarily, we who forsake all foolishness, i.e. everything that does not and cannot belong to Him, need to change a lot so as to walk the path of following Him. I understand this is the main idea of how we could deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow Jesus.

Reflection questions:

1) What hinders you from choosing life and following the Lord Jesus? If you find any hindrance in it, what would you do?

2) What difficulties do you think you would encounter in discarding things that do not belong to and cannot be used by the Lord? How would you rely on Him to resolve them?