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Are you prudent enough to avoid danger?
Are you always falling in danger? Or is someone you know always falling in trouble? Then this write up is surely for you.
The Bible says:-
The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. (Proverbs 22:3)
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 27:12, KJV)
The the key words are ‘see danger’ and ‘foreseeth the evil’ (or ‘foreseeing the evil’ in modern English).
Let’s also understand the meaning of the word prudent.
Prudent – careful and avoiding risks: as per dictionary.cambridge.org
It’s a good thing to be prudent. Because by being careful you avoid risks.
If you know a certain exercise has harmed people, you can always avoid it or ask your physical trainer for an alternative.
Before you put your money for investment into a financial institution or corporation, its better to check the viability of long term positive returns. Otherwise you’d end up lamenting about your losses.
If you’re going to have surgery for yourself or friends and family, its always good to research and have a second opinion from another doctor, if that is the best thing to do. You don’t want to end up even more sick post surgery due to an ill informed decision.
Don’t get fooled by what you see on the TV or online about taking risks head on. You need to understand the risk and know why you need to take it or you can skip a worthless risk. It will save you a lot of time and effort.
It is not enough to see or foresee danger but also you must act accordingly on this. Most importantly follow the words of Jesus Christ as given below in Matthew 7:24-27:
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
May you be truly prudent and avoid danger!
O Christian discern well before you marry
O Christian before you go for your marital union,
Check if you’d then still be in God’s communion.
Do not desire courtship with any unbeliever,
Because that one ain’t God’s grace receiver.
Even if someone claims in Christ to believe,
Make sure its not an attempt to deceive.
For many have tricked and have lied,
To get the unwitting victim to them tied.
Discern well before you marry,
Because faith in God you carry.
Discern well before you marry,
Lest you drift in a direction contrary.
Choose a spouse who is good and just,
And helps to build in Christ your trust.
Desire your beloved to be the one that prays,
That from wisdom and truth no one strays.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
Anti Narcissist series – Part three (Do not marry nor date a Narcissist)
Disclaimer: I categorically state that this post never is about divorcing anyone. This is about not getting into a messy marriage in the first place and then crying out for a divorce.
There are times in life when your friends and family can tell you if you’ve got a bad friend much before you notice. This is because of something know as objectivity. While you may have a subjective opinion of your friend especially that friend whom one intends to marry, others may not view this through an emotional perspective. God forbid if one’s dating a narcissist, then one must do something to help oneself out of it. I’m talking about before the relationship deepens or even marriage occurs.
The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. (Proverbs 22:3)
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house. (Proverbs 24:27)
Just a quick reminder of what a Narcissist personality type is:
1. Excessive preoccupation with or admiration of oneself.
2. A personality disorder characterized by self-preoccupation, need for admiration, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem. (source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/narcissist)
There are people, even Christian’s who unwitting set themselves up for a nasty marriage and a more nastier divorce. Some of them after marriage or even post divorce wonder where did it all go wrong for them. Others then wonder that how could they be so foolish to trust a proud, arrogant narcissist person to be their spouse and expect kindness and sincerity in love by that person. While others who date with the intention to get married never come to getting married but are badly dumped by their narcissist fiance. These then take a lot of time trying to recover emotionally.
My solution to them if I had got to meet them earlier: “Do not marry nor date a Narcissist at all, in your entire life”.
Even for those who are yet to marry or yet to meet up their future spouse I’d say: “Never a fancy a Narcissist to be your future spouse because you will sorely hurt yourself in the long run for this”.
An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. (Proverbs 31:10-12)
Let me share with you something I learnt years ago in a church group. This will be helpful to describe a narcissist spouse to avoid. The teenagers would be warned of the “Butterfly girl”and how to not get her for marriage (they also said this may even be a ‘Butterfly boy’ depending on the situation in the sense if it’s the boy who is the narcissist and a good girl is trying to marry him). The Butterfly girl is a Narcissist to begin with. She only cares for herself. A good boy tries to woo her and marry her. She knows this well but pretends not to care. The boy keeps trying to speak nicely, takes her out for dates but that’s not good enough for her. (Tip: Never date any person whom you don’t intend to marry). She then finds faults with all his friends and says he loves his friends more than her. However, she will go with any of her friends to appear busy for him. On the other hand keeps away from his friends. Yet she doesn’t profess love back to him. He keeps running behind her and she keeps moving away from him. That’s why she’s called the Butterfly.
The Butterfly girl always blames the boy for her shortcomings. She revels in keeping the guy guessing if she’s with him or not. That’s her idea all along. Now she also excessively praises herself. In due time she finds fault with the guy’s family. And the guy is isolated even more. She will never acknowledge if she wants to continue with the guy but instead will blame the guy for not doing enough to show his interest in the relationship. In reality she is just projecting her own faults over to him.
After a lot of chasing and declarations of love by the boy, the Butterfly girl finally marries the guy who by now has isolated himself from people who might help him such as his family and friends. Even with marriage the guy is not sure if the girl loves him or not. Now once married either of the two things happen. One, the guy is emotionally drained out and can’t put up with the chase any more, so his ‘Butterfly’ wife accuses him of ‘forgetting’ his love for her. The result; an unhappy marriage. The other thing which may happen is that the guy still has some mental energy left and his Butterfly wife fully aware of it, now wants to show others how well she controls him. The result; the unwitting husband is indefinitely made to prove his love for his wife over and over again which then leads to a burnout for him. Either of the two ways, it may end up into a divorce if things get more wrong from there. But at the end of it, the Butterfly girl (now the wife) will project that she was the victim of her ‘overzealous’ husband all the time and will even cite that his abandoning of friends and family was his own fault of over protectiveness. Such is the danger of the Butterfly girl (or Butterfly boy)!
The teenagers would therefore be told that if a person whom they feel might be a suitable spouse, then they should check that person is filled with excess of pride or has an inflated ego. And if yes, then avoid that person right at the beginning by not going after them. They were also told that if the potential spouse to be may be nice to them but arrogant towards others, then that person is not the nice person they are trying portray themselves to be, so run away before it’s too late.
Don’t get married just to avoid loneliness but instead be wise enough to search and wait for the right person. Some people incorrectly only wait but do not search. It’s a wrong strategy for them, they must actually search as well. Now by search I mean you don’t first propose marriage and then go along to see if it’s going well during your courtship with your potential future spouse. Some narcissists are way too cunning. They will pretend to be very kind and loving just to keep you committed to them, while they on the inside will not share the same sentiment. So instead of blindly trying to propose someone, a wise person will first find out if the person whom they want to marry are actually worth the time and effort, and only then propose. This will save them a of tears and heartbreaks.
Prayer for those unmarried who have read this post:
I pray for all those who are intending to marry, especially those who profess the Christian faith. O Lord Jesus grant it that those who are on their way to emotional abuse and destruction are saved from trouble. Open their eyes so that they may really see. Send your Holy Spirit to guide them as they choose whom they are to marry. Let them get only the right person and be delivered from all narcissist’s no matter what the deception. I pray for the breaking of soul ties that bind N (N-name of the person) to the wrong person who is stealing their joy and hope. Be their protector and mentor and expose the dangers in advance so that they flee it. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Related articles:
Anti Narcissist series – Part one (Narcissism defined)
The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. (Proverbs 22:3)
To avoid a narcissist in your life, you must first know what a narcissist is and take your actions. That’s the difference between a prudent one and those are simpletons or gullible people.
At times, I encounter to people who face issues on being in love with a narcissist. Their sufferings are odd but what’s more odd is that these people can’t seem to keep away from their narcissist fiancé whom they intend to marry. They allow themselves to be the proverbial doormat to their oppressive fiancé. Some of these despite my warnings to cease and desist from continuing with such vile ‘sweethearts’ went on with the relationship, lost a lot of their emotional and physical health. And then they came back to me saying that the fiancé now is not interested in marrying them and how to win back their fiancé. I’d then say to them, good riddance for you, now please go and thank God for this, but the people whose hearts were broken by their narcissist ‘loved’ one were still in disbelief that the break up happened. I late understood this weird attachment as a soul tie.
Narcissism is not limited to only a couple who intend to marry. It could be a vile boss, a despotic dictator, traitors, serial stalkers etc. They don’t just seem to care about whom they have to hurt, just so that it inflates their self image to the clouds.
For those who wonder as to what a Narcissist is, here are two most appropriate definitions:
1. Excessive preoccupation with or admiration of oneself.
2. A personality disorder characterized by self-preoccupation, need for admiration, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem. (source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/narcissist)
Now for those who still don’t get my point, maybe due to fact they could be with only genuinely nice people, let me make it real to you; bad people do exist. About a few years ago, I encountered once such Narcissist. We due to some reason had to be in the same vehicle. And she kept yelling at her fiancé over the phone. Now all of a sudden she was speaking kindly to him. Initially I was not one bit interested in what she was saying, I was more bothered as to why she became polite without dropping a hint. She then told her fiance that, for two minutes they are to be off the phone and he must not call her and only after the actual time is over to call her back. This is the bit that provoked my interest. She held her mobile phone in her hand and also kept looking at her watch to see if two minutes passed by.
Her boyfriend or fiancé I suppose, called her a few seconds before the stipulated two minutes were done with. Immediately, this vile woman unloaded the worst possible insults to her boyfriend and kept asking him to apologize for calling before the two minutes were over. Even after the boyfriend once said sorry to her, she kept demanding that he keep saying sorry over and over again. Finally, she said the only sorry that she will accept is if she given a ‘treat’ of shopping for her whatever she wishes, provided the boyfriend pays the bills.
I was shocked at such behaviour. A gentleman in the same vehicle, once the girl got off, remarked as to once the girl and her fiancé get married it’s going to be an emotional riot in their marriage. I later pondered on the situation and realized that the girl was indeed a narcissist. Suppose if her boyfriend could think of how his actual future would be with her, he could either tactfully correct her or just leave her. Both ways it would set up a non oppressive future for him with her.
I believe that since the Bible warns of narcissism it didn’t do so only for the sake of our reading. It’s something we must pay attention to and also act on.
Does the Bible speak of narcissism?
– Yes it does and elaborates on narcissism very clearly. Here’s what it says:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
Name a few in the Bible are known to be narcissists?
– I’ll mention four such men. Here we go:
- Gehazi
- Nebuchadnezzar
- Judas Iscariot
- Herod
God himself got these four punished in various forms and as per the degree of their sin. At times he did it through his servants on earth, at times by the angels, at times by the narcissists own actions and at times even one on one. (I’ll cover these four in detail in next post of these series) If the Lord knows how to recognize narcissists, shouldn’t we keep guard against such types? Yes, and like I mentioned we need to know what as narcissist is and then take decisive action.
Just because someone looks neat and beautiful doesn’t mean that you should say he or she is a nice person. Understand what their words and actions mean, and you’d know the kind of person they truly are.
Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” (John 7:24)
Christ be with you!
Blind tolerance is foolishness
Never get fooled that tolerance is the only thing to have when dealing with others, especially those who hate you and your faith in Christ. You also need prudence. One also needs to be alert. Most of all, your tolerance must be as per God’s will which includes prudence and vigilance and not as per man’s opinions. Blind tolerance is nothing less than foolishness. To be wise in your tolerance, you need to read the Bible for this and not just a few verses, you need to take the whole Bible into perspective.
Some people are overzealous about; Judge not, that you be not judged (Matthew 7:1). These behave that this is the only verse they ought to follow. I’ve already written an article about this (click here to view it) in order to let such people get the right idea of ‘judge not’, so I won’t elaborate too much on this.
The Bible tells us to be vigilant:
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children (Deuteronomy 4:9).
It also reminds us to be prudent:
The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. (Proverbs 22:3)
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. (Matthew 12:14-16)
Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. (Matthew 7:6)
We also need to discern:
Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.(Proverbs 14:7)
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.(Proverbs 17:15)
There are things we are not to tolerate:
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. (Revelation 2:20)
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. (Romans 16:17)
Our tolerance towards others must not mean that we compromise on vigilance, prudence nor discernment. We are not called to tolerate each and everything. One needs to have a balanced view of the Bible in all things.
Some might say, ‘we are to turn the other cheek’ and to them I say ‘do not put the Lord your God to the test’. If you are to choose between life and Christ, its best to take Christ for yourself. But don’t deliberately put yourself or your loved ones in a situation where doesn’t know how to deal with danger. Not every time this is case of getting tempted to leave Christ. And not everyone out in the world is a criminal. But some are indeed evil! So we must go by the facts and not ignore them. If a leopard has attacked many cattle, don’t assume it’ll be tame towards you because it never killed a human before. You don’t give it to act first to make a decision but instead you first make sure you keep a safe distance from the wild cat or be out of sight.
In the same way, if you know that there are people with a history of violence, you don’t try to play ‘nice’. Instead you keep a safe distance from them. I’m not talking about only terrorists. This is about thugs and murderers too. Also, warn your children and loved ones to know whom to get near and whom to keep away from.
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22: 6)
Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. (Proverbs 22:24-25)
Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. (Proverbs 24: 8-9)
Never get too happy when you see evil doers go down in life. Such rejoicing must be avoided. Be sober because it’s the Lord God fighting them. And the Lord can use angels, animals and even humans to do his work of justice.
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. (Proverbs 24: 17-18)
You might find my opinion a bit odd, but at times when I came know of so and so sinners, even terrorists who died when being confronted by workers of justice, I felt bad that such souls have not accepted the Gospel and not repented and so are not going to heaven. For a few seconds I tried to imagine that if they accepted the Lord Jesus much earlier in life, how much damage and death to others could have been avoided in the first place.
Then reality set in, I viewed the new reports again and I realized there were innocent people, even innocent kids who got killed by these evil doers. So Divine justice already had to tackle the murderers on earth itself before giving them their due punishment in hell. So if even if you hear of such workers of iniquity getting harmed or killed, do not rejoice but rather pray for the victims of their crimes and also for the victims families. Don’t pray for the wicked who have died in battle, since there is no hope for them.
Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out. (Proverbs 24: 19-20)
Verses for reflection:
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ (Revelation 2: 1-7)
Prudence in action
DO NOT yield to every impulse and suggestion but consider things carefully and patiently in the light of God’s will. For very often, sad to say, we are so weak that we believe and speak evil of others rather than good. Perfect men, however, do not readily believe every talebearer, because they know that human frailty is prone to evil and is likely to appear in
speech.
Not to act rashly or to cling obstinately to one’s opinion, not to believe everything people say or to spread abroad the gossip one has heard, is great wisdom. Take counsel with a wise and conscientious man. Seek the advice of your betters in preference to following your own inclinations.
A good life makes a man wise according to God and gives him experience in many things, for the more humble he is and the more subject to God, the wiser and the more at peace he will be in all things.
– The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis
Disciples of hope 