Good morning and welcome to Week 3 in our Walking In Wisdom study! This week the focus is on relationships. Our lives are made up of various kinds of relationships – at work, at home, at church, at school, at the park, and at the store, just to name a few. We interact with people all the time and in different ways. Proverbs gives us a lot of wise counsel when it comes to who we should hang around with.
The Influence of Friends
In Proverbs 13:20 we are told that we should walk with those who are wise, and in turn we will become wise. People rub off on each other. The way we speak, the way we think, our behavior and vocabulary can affect the people we are with and vice versa.
If you have a really close friend, have you ever noticed yourself laughing like them, or using the same phrases as they do? We are easily influenced whether we realize it or not. And so Scripture tells us to make sure we are surrounding ourselves with wise people. Remember that a wise person is someone who loves God deeply and views all things through the lens of Scripture. Wise friends will love us, warts and all, and they make us want to be better by pointing us to Scripture.
Now, in Proverbs 22:24-25 we have verses that tell us specifically who we are to stay away from.
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.
This bit of wisdom is written in a tetrastich, meaning that it is a verse with four lines. Two of them are warnings and two of them tell us consequences. This type of repetition is used to make a point. Anger, wrath, annoyance and bad attitudes… these are like diseases carried along and spread to others by the infected.
If we hang around a person whose life is characterized by these various kinds of anger, then we are placing ourselves in a position where instead of being influenced for godliness we end up being influenced for ungodliness (1Cor. 15:33).
The Danger of Anger
Anger is both rebellion and pride. It is a kind of rebellion against God’s providence and goodness. In our anger we are essentially saying “I am not happy with what you are doing, Lord, and I don’t believe that it is good.” It is also a sign of pride because through our attitude we are saying that we believe we know better than God. Our anger generally comes from a heart that believes “I don’t deserve this!” or “I am better than this.” Anger defies the wisdom of God.
Such sins are dangerous and need to be guarded against. Anger in its various forms does not achieve the righteousness of God.
Proverbs is not telling us not to love and care for people prone to anger. And many of our friends will struggle with anger. But we need to be careful that we don’t join them in their bad attitude, and seek to encourage them toward peace. If we see that we are being led into ungodliness it is important to make changes, even limiting the relationship by spending less time with such a person. We should all seek to surround ourselves with people who model for us the fruit of the spirit and will cheer us on in our quest for godliness.
Now maybe we are the person who struggles with anger. In that case we need to repent and begin to grow in the fruit of self control by saturating our lives with Scripture, prayer and godly friends.
Looking to Jesus,
Week 3 Video:
(Can’t see the video? Click here)
Week 3 Challenge:
Lay all pride aside and identify areas in your life where anger has taken hold. Prayer is powerful, so pray daily that God would help you kill anger and grow in self control and patience. Seek out others who will love you as you are and call you to godliness.
Week 3 Reading Plan:
Week 3 Memory Verse:
TODAY begins Week 3 of our Walking In Wisdom study!! You can find our women’s and children’s Walking In Wisdom journals available on Amazon!

Wow, this scripture is one that I work on every day and some days I can control it, and some days I just allow the carrier to pull me into their snare. I give can give God credit for the change in my life, because I can now stand in a grocery store line without getting mad because the store clerk is moving too slow and I have somewhere that I am rushing off to, or the driver of another car pulls in front of you and cut you off in traffic. Today I am struggling with a bigger problem and it’s called FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!! It this situation with family instead of giving anger back, I am practicing displaying a Godly approach and trying to set and example on the love of God. God is working it our through pray, but I know I have to do my work and believe in God to do his promises. You see it’s my daughter, so I just can not walk away from this situation I have to say and fight for our relationship. My daughter is coming from a very abusive relationship with two kids and me being mommy and grandma I want to do all I can to help her out, but she is always angry and seems to want me to join her, and I did just that in the beginning. Until I turn to God for help, and God said to me to set an example on the changes that I have made in my life and she will follow. I am praying today for God to keep me strong to stand up to anger and not allow me to follow in wrath. I knew God was the answer for my life I just had to keep praying for righteousness. I am work in process, but today I am not who I was 5 years ago, or even a year ago. I changed my friends, my jobs, and even the state I lived in, but I prayed and prayed until God moved me on his time. Today I want to pray for my daughter that she moves in God direction and change from anger to faith in God.
Oh darling! For your faith and trust in God, He is working on your daughter. Keep up the faith! Keep on being strong. He is working. He is. Our Father, the Only Helper we have. The One who is I Am, our strength and song. The maker of the heaven and earth. Every heart is in Your hands and You turn it to wherever You want. Please draw Kimbly’s daughter to You daily until she finds You. Break every bitterness and pain holding her captive, turn her heart to You for in Jesus matchless name we pray. Amen. It is done honey!
Oh my this blog post! It hit me right in the head. Bypassed the steppping on toes and hit me right in the head! There is a situation I have been praying about for 2 years. God keeps saying “Trust me. I am going to work this out !” I have grown impatient lately. Not understanding why this has not been resolved yet. And today, through you, He has spoken, again. He is God. I am not. Being angry with him, questioning Him, is a sin. One that I must repent of today and avoid in the future. He knows what He is doing and I must trust that. Thank you for your words today.
Beloved, when He sends His words, it’s because He loves us and wants us to daily trust Him and be like Him. Your decision today is a very great one. So dear Lord see Your daughter as she chooses to trust You. Please open her heart daily to You. Amen.
Jen, you did a magnificent job in delivering these much needed words into our lives. Praying for your family’s healing. That is tough! My family is there also but not flu…other ‘bugs’. (PS Love your hair do….it’s really cute!)
Joan, I’ll be praying fir your family as well. May we all be healed of ‘diseases’ of every kind.
I have been struggling with anger and impatience with my 4 young kids. No time for me, it seems someone is always needing something from me and they pile inbuilt when they don’t get it. God has given me strength to breathe in situations when I would have lost it, and allowed me to be positive and smile even when I feel drained. I’m an example to my 3 daughters …. I can’t forget that in those stressful moments.
Sweetness the Lord is your strength always. Blessings from all of us at Love God Greatly.
Hope you are feeling better Jen!
Thanks for still sharing a great message as well!
Linda Asbell
Linda, thank you for being with us during this study. We are so very blessed by the leadership team, they are truly devoted disciples who seek to further the Word of God-even when life and illness want to get in the way.