Incline Your Ear to Wisdom
🗓️ MONDAY — Proverbs 22:17–27
Theme: Incline Your Ear to Wisdom
Morning Focus:
Are you making room to really hear God’s wisdom, or are you rushing past it?
Daily Assignment:
🔍 Word Study: “Knowledge” (v.17) – Hebrew: da‘ath (Strong’s H1847) – Insight, discernment, perception. “Apply” (v.17) – Hebrew: shît (שִׁית) — to place, set, fix.
📖 Deep Dive: What does it mean to “apply your heart to knowledge”? What does that look like practically?
What are the first three sayings mentioned in this list of 30 wise principles? What is God asking you to do with them?🧠 Memory Verse: Proverbs 22:19 – “So that your trust may be in the Lord; I have instructed you today, even you.”
✍️ Prayer Journal Prompt: Where do I need to stop leaning on my own understanding and begin trusting God's wisdom?
🎙️ Engage: “Wisdom Whisper” – Share one piece of Godly wisdom you’ve heard that changed your thinking. What have you stored in your heart lately? Do your thoughts reflect God's wisdom or something else?
🔍 Unseen Ways We Might Be Robbing the Poor
“Don’t rob the poor just because you can, or exploit the needy in court. For the Lord is their defender. He will ruin anyone who ruins them.”
Here are some unexpected ways we may be robbing or oppressing the needy in today’s world:
🗣 Withholding Advocacy
When we’re in rooms of influence and choose comfort over speaking up.⏳ Hoarding Time or Opportunity
When we withhold mentorship, insight, or wisdom that could lift someone.📉 Enabling Exploitative Systems
When we benefit from or support systems that underpay or ignore human dignity.🧊 Emotional Neglect
When we look away from someone’s need because it feels too messy or inconvenient.👤 Judging the Needy
When we believe people deserve their poverty or misfortune without knowing their story.🙅🏽♀️ Emotional Detachment
When we see injustice and feel nothing because “it’s not my issue.”📣 Using Influence Without Purpose
When our platforms are full of promotion, but void of compassion.
🫀 Examine For Hidden Anger
“Don’t befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people, or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul.”
We don’t want to be around anyone who is angry but we also have to do soul searching and make sure that we are not THE ANGRY ONE.
1. Ask Yourself Reflective Questions Beyond the Obvious
Do I shut down easily when someone disagrees with me?
Do I replay conversations or offenses in my mind?
Do I often feel misunderstood or disrespected, even when people didn’t mean harm?
Do I secretly celebrate when someone who hurt me fails?
Do I vent often but rarely forgive inwardly?
2. Listen to the Tone of Your Inner Dialogue
How do you talk to yourself?
Are you harsh, impatient, or critical? Often, the tone we use inwardly mirrors what we’re holding onto.
Do you get easily irritated at small inconveniences? That can be a symptom of suppressed anger, not just "a bad day."
3. Trace the Roots
Anger often masks something else: hurt, fear, betrayal, shame, or unmet expectations.
Ask:
“What made me feel powerless or disrespected that I haven’t fully processed?”
“Who do I still feel owes me an apology?”
“Is there an old disappointment I’ve never grieved?”
4. Look at Your Triggers
What kinds of people or situations quickly irritate you?
Authority figures?
Unreliable people?
Being interrupted or ignored?
Triggers reveal unresolved stories. Write down your top 3 recent triggers and explore what old story or fear they are tied to.
5. Notice Your Relationships
Do people feel like they’re “walking on eggshells” around you?
Do you often get defensive or shut down emotionally when conflict arises?
Do you cut people off quickly?
Relational patterns reveal emotional posture. If people say you’re “too intense” or “too guarded,” anger might be part of your default mode.
6. Examine Your Body Language and Health
Anger can show up in:
Tension in the jaw or shoulders
Headaches
Rapid breathing
Restlessness or tight chest during emotional conversations
Your body often speaks what your heart is suppressing.
7. Pray This Dangerous Prayer (Psalm 139 Style)
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” — Psalm 139:23–24
Then wait silently. Journal what rises. God often brings up what we’ve buried.
💭 Bonus: Hidden Forms of Anger
Anger isn’t always loud. Here are lesser-known forms:
Sarcasm and subtle jabs
Avoidance or ghosting people
Passive-aggressive comments
Over-functioning to prove your worth
Cynicism — the bitterness of disappointment dressed as humor
🤝 Ways We Co-Sign Debts Without a Pen
“Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for someone else. If you can’t pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you.”
1. 🧠 Mentally — Taking Responsibility for Someone’s Growth or Consequences
You carry guilt or pressure for someone else’s poor decisions.
You obsess over how to “fix” someone’s mess as if it's your duty.
You lose sleep because of what someone else refused to deal with.
❗️Sign of Co-Signing: When their burden becomes your torment.
2. 💬 Emotionally — Absorbing the Emotional Cost
You become someone’s emotional bank account.
You say “yes” to peacekeeping when you mean “no.”
You let manipulation, guilt, or fear trap you in one-sided loyalty.
❗️Sign of Co-Signing: When you protect someone's feelings at the cost of your boundaries.
3. 🛐 Spiritually — Taking on Yokes You Weren’t Assigned
Praying for someone turns into praying instead of them.
You start carrying spiritual warfare that God didn’t call you to bear.
You enter agreements with people’s brokenness rather than God's plan for them.
❗️Sign of Co-Signing: When you're drained spiritually because you’re tied to someone else's unwillingness to obey God.
4. 🔗 Relationally — Enabling or Overextending
You make excuses for their behavior to others.
You keep lending time, energy, or resources even after God says, “Let go.”
You feel you owe them access because of history, even when it harms you.
❗️Sign of Co-Signing: When you continue the relationship out of obligation, not grace.
5. 🪞 Internally — Living Through Someone Else’s Identity
You over-identify with their pain and begin to define yourself by their struggle.
You confuse empathy with entanglement.
❗️Sign of Co-Signing: When your emotional state rises and falls based on their choices, not your own life or calling.
