“…those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness”
(Proverbs 14:22, NIV)
Work Brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty! Proverbs 14:23 NLT
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary: verse 22) “How wisely those consult their own interest, who not only do good, but devise it! verse 23) Labour of the head, or of the hand, will turn to some good account. But if men’s religion runs all out in talk and noise, they will come to nothing.”
thedailylily.com 
That makes me think that if your head and your hand seek to do good surely your heart will follow. And vice versa. If your heart seeks to do good, surely your head and your hand will follow. For where your heart is there is your treasure.
There is a quote, “man proposes, God disposes” My first impression of this phrase was that man makes a bunch of plans and then God deftly disposes of them(gets rid of them); but according to the quote from Prov. 14:22 maybe I see another way of looking at it.
To dispose of something means to cast it away or trash it. But another meaning of dispose is…”to set in order…to arrange, to correct, to set in a particular, right frame of mind’. (the free dictionary Google)
Now more light is shed on the Proverb..” those who plan on what is good, or who plan good, find love and faithfulness. So if a righteous man proposes in his mind to perform a charitable deed, a godly act, then God in His faithfulness will “dispose” that person to act correctly with his plan and arrange and order his steps aright. Good, huh?
The quotes above look like math equations to me…either additions (work bringing proft)or subtractions (talk, talk, talk leading to debt).And when you think we are given 24 hours in a day to balance the ledger….we will either end up in the black or red in God’s accounting books.
Proverbs 14:22 (The Message) ” Isn’t it obvious that conspirators lose out, while the thoughtful win love and trust?”
I think Eugene Peterson has used a very interesting word in our language for the above scripture….”Thoughtful.”
thoughtful |ˈθôtfəl| adjective…absorbed in or involving thought…• showing consideration for the needs of other people…• showing careful consideration or attention …
Sara, are you saying…. “GBY”??
Getting Beyond Yourself
Or maybe it includes GBO…Getting Beyond Ourselves
Or better yet, GIVING Beyond Ourselves.
That’s thoughtful!
Thoughtful is an interesting word, Sara. Anyone of us that has been the recipient of someone’s ‘thoughtful’ gift or good deed treasures the value of it and the person who gave it. In contrast, a gift or deed that is thoughtlessly ‘thrown together’ brings little honor to the recipient or to the giver, diminishing the value of both.
In Hebrews 6: 10 – 12 NIV it says 10. God is not unjust; he (God) will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
So we go beyond ourselves with a thoughtful heart and and do with ‘beauty and exactness’ maintaining our faith without laziness and we will inherit the promises of God. The saying, “If you build it they will come.” Thus if we take our hands to build in love a gift to others surely they’ll be touched. Surely they will see how God works through Christians who gave the gift to reach out and touch and will come in search of the Master – Jesus Christ who was behind and working through the giver to touch them in love through the good deed.
Thoughtful! Beauty and Exactness! Plan! Beyond! Make plans!
Fear is one of the enemy’s favorite ways to keep us from going beyond, i.e. making plans and letting God direct our steps and bless our plans.
God’s Word tells us that fear is a spirit. It has great ability to control our emotions.Fear Loves to bring confusion so the focus will be on the emotion. Fear loves to waste everybody’s time. But when we choose to put our trust in God, combating fear with wisdom, we will receive unfailing love and faithfulness.
Some footnotes from NLT on Proverbs 14: The Wise, give encouragement, enjoy living wisely, consider their steps, hungry for knowledge, value wisdom above riches, respond to correction, pursue wisdom, profit from correction, trust in wisdom, control their anger.
The Foolish, lack common sense, enjoy foolishness, gullible, avoid the wise, feed on the trash of foolishness, do not respond to punishment, pursue illusive dreams, blame failure on God, proud and arrogant, despise wise advice, make truth useless, trust in themselves, unleash their angry….
Proverbs 14:23 “Work brings profit, but merely talk leads to poverty.” This reminds me of the quote ” Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk. ” When I read this I think of Moses and the work he did. If he just talked the talk and didn’t walk the walk, he would have never lead the Lord’s people out of Egypt. He used words and he backed it up with action. He was obedient to God’s will for his life and therefore he profited. Talk is just empty words without the work to back it up.
Right on Sis. Chickfarmer! How many meetings have we had in our churches, work and homes and laid out talk plans and skills? Then we go and do as we please and forget what we heard and said. When questioned on where the goods are? We say “OOOPS, we forgot, we just don’t remember, let us go and search out our notes!” Now we can’t find our notes and when we do we can’t read them. HOHOHO! goes the old story again and again.
“Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk.” Where are the goodies of the talk? O, then we scurry around trying to do the talk and its way past the time and then our time looks like our talk with still NO WALK!