The Fruit of Her Hands (Day 22)

3 Reactions to Proverbs 31:
            1. Reject it – it’s out dated, go with the culture of today.
            2. Mt. Siani – striving to do it on our own (Ex 24:3).
            3. Mt Calvary – Gal 2:20 Christ’s STRENGHT!

“Jesus would You be Jesus in me?” 

"Would You do in me what I can’t do apart from You?”

It’s a life of faith; it’s a life of dependence—not of striving and struggling, but of saying, “I can’t do this; but Jesus, would You be Jesus in me? I can’t love that husband. I can’t love those children. I can’t have that diligent, hard working, industrious spirit. I’m going to get worn out in this effort. I can’t speak words that are kind and wise all the time. My mouth just runs away. Leave me to myself, Lord, and I’m going to be one unpleasant person to live with. But Lord, I know that You’re living in me, and You can do this in me and through me. And by faith, I want to let You live that life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit, and be in me and through me what I could never be.”

It’s the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for me. It means that it’s finished. I don’t have to strive. I don’t have to struggle. He’s paid the price for my sin. He now lives in me to fulfill the righteousness of His Law.

So this passage is a call, as is the whole Word of God, to walk in dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit. You say, “Does that mean I’ll never blow it again?” No, because we’re so prone to get back to Mount Sinai and try do it on our own, or to reject the picture.

But when you find yourself having rejected the picture of God’s Law, or you find yourself back in that cycle of trying to strive and perform, just stop. Get quiet before the Lord and say, “Lord, I’m so sorry. I repent of trying to do this on my own.” It’s just as sinful to try and do it on your own as it is to reject the picture, because either way, you’re doing it apart from Christ. Whatever is not of faith is sin.

And you can read all of those things, and you can say, “That sounds like such a sacrificial lifestyle. This woman didn’t have any life of her own.” Do you know what Jesus said? “If you hold onto your life, you’ll lose it.” Here’s a woman who understands the paradox of the ways of Christ. If you lay down your life, you’ll get it back. You have to be willing to give it up in order to really have it (see John 12:25).

So many women today, and so many times in our lives, we’re holding on to our own rights: my time, my privacy, my peace of mind, my space. We’re being self-protective, self-seeking, and what happens? We end up alone and miserable. Broken relationships, broken homes, no one to care for us in our old age—we see that happening with a lot of older people today.

If we live selfish lives now, we will reap the fruit of our own hands. Our own works will be what we have to live with long-term. This woman is selfless. She’s giving; she’s sacrificial; she’s serving; but as you read this passage, there’s no indication that she’s a miserable woman. I mean, look at her! She’s well-clothed; she’s well-fed. She has a husband who’s wild about her. He brags about her to his friends. She’s got kids who rise up and bless her. What woman could ask for more? She laid down her life, and she’ll be praised.

Let me say, by the way, we will reap what we sow. This woman reaps what she has sown over a lifetime of fearing the Lord and living out that fear of the Lord. But the beginning of Proverbs tells us about another kind of seed we can sow. In Proverbs chapter one, we read, beginning in verse 29, “Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.” Proverbs 31 says this woman chose the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs one says some people don’t choose the fear of the Lord. “They would have none of my counsel. They despised my every rebuke.” This is Wisdom speaking, and the Lord speaking, and He’s saying that if you won’t take My counsel, if you won’t take My instruction, if you won’t choose the fear of the Lord, verse 31, “therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way. They will be filled to the full with their own fancies” (Proverbs 1:29–31).

Let me tell you, ladies, one way or the other, you and I will eat the fruit of our ways, or the choices of our hands. The foolish person, Proverbs chapter one, won’t regard the counsel of God, will not accept God’s picture of what it means to be a godly woman, rejects the fear of the Lord, and that person will eat the fruit of their own hands, the fruit of their own works.

H.A. Ironside was a long time ago wonderful Bible teacher. In his commentary on the book of Proverbs, he closes this portion by saying that we can see in this last verse of Proverbs 31, “More than a hint of what awaits the Christian at the judgment seat of Christ.” Let me say ladies, if you’re in it for the short term, for the short haul, you’re not going to get the paycheck or the rewards soon enough. You’ll give up. You’ll get discouraged.

So, Ironside says to look to what awaits us at the judgment seat of Christ. Look down the road. He says, “When the mists of earth have gone on forever, such a woman,” the kind of woman we’ve been reading about in Proverbs 31, “that kind of woman will appear in her Lord’s own presence with rejoicing, bearing her sheaves with her. At His feet, she will cast down the fruit of her hands and the works accomplished through His grace to have all surveyed by Christ. How sweet to hear His words of approval in the gate.”¹

Let me say, you may never have heard man’s words of approval this side of Heaven, but if you’re living out this life by the power of the Holy Spirit, one day you will hear those words of approval in the gate, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:23).

Ironside goes on to say, “At that moment who will regret the days of toil and nights of watching? Who then would exchange the saint’s path and portion with all its responsibilities as well as privileges, for a place of ease and careless enjoyment of a few fleeting hours on earth? Not one. Living in view,” he says, “of that sacred hour when all our works will be inspected by Him who has won our deepest affections, may we purposely and earnestly cling to Christ. May we hold fast to His faithful Word, not denying His name, while we wait here for His return.”