Seek Good and Trust God

The Way of Wisdom: A Journey through Proverbs

Read slowly: Proverbs 11:27–28

We can give considerable effort to securing a better position without asking whether we are pursuing something good. A plan may promise more influence, money, or protection while drawing us into conduct that weakens the life we hoped to strengthen. These two sayings ask us to examine both our aim and the place where we rest our trust.

The previous reading considered generosity and making resources useful to others. Today wisdom looks beneath those decisions. What are we diligently seeking, and what do we believe will finally keep us secure?

Seek opportunities to do what is good

Read Proverbs 11:27.

The person who diligently seeks good seeks favor, while evil comes to the person who searches for it. The repeated idea of seeking gives the saying its energy. These are directions being pursued, not merely opinions held about goodness and evil.

Seeking good requires attention and effort. It may mean looking for the truth before passing on a report, noticing a need before being asked, or finding a way to resolve a disagreement fairly. Henry describes the person in view as actively looking for opportunities to serve and help others.¹ Goodness is allowed to shape what the person notices and makes room for.

The favor associated with that pursuit includes the fitting approval of a life directed toward good. The ESV footnote offers acceptance as another rendering. Guzik relates the saying to favor with God and with people.² We should hear it as a reason to value the good itself, rather than turning helpful conduct into a performance designed to win admiration.

There is a meaningful difference between helping a colleague succeed and appearing helpful while quietly protecting every advantage for ourselves. The outward act may look similar at first. The aim becomes clearer in what we are willing to do when there is little chance of receiving credit.

The second half of the proverb warns that a person searching for evil may find more than the intended opportunity. Guzik notes that the trouble can consist in meeting the very evil being pursued.³ Someone who cultivates deceit, revenge, or another person's downfall is entering a way of life shaped by those things.

A plan to humiliate a rival can make suspicion and hostility more normal in every conversation. A convenient falsehood can create the need for further concealment. The damage is not always limited to the first person targeted. The pursuit changes the person making it and the relationships in which they must live.

The verse therefore invites us to examine what is receiving our diligence. We may be avoiding an obvious wrong while putting little energy into anyone else's good. A faithful course gives goodness a positive place in our plans: something to look for, choose, and carry through.

Notice what you are asking wealth to provide

Read Proverbs 11:28.

The next saying names a misplaced trust. The person who trusts in riches will fall, while the righteous flourish like a green leaf. The concern is not simply how much a person owns. It is what that person relies on.

That distinction belongs naturally after the preceding sayings. A store of grain can serve a community, and resources can be used generously. Money has useful work to do. Yet it cannot bear every hope we place upon it or secure our standing before God.

Henry warns against treating riches as protection and as the source of the favor only God can give.⁴ Wealth cannot decide what is right, remove our need for mercy, or put the future entirely under our control. If we ask it to perform those tasks, we are leaning on something unable to sustain us.

This trust can appear in decisions made long before someone becomes wealthy. A person may assume that life can begin in earnest only after reaching a certain financial position, or that an ethical compromise will be harmless once it produces enough security. Someone who already possesses much may find it difficult to act generously because every loss feels like a threat to the foundation of life.

The proverb directs our attention toward a different source of stability. Guzik reads the righteous person's flourishing in relation to trust in God.⁵ Righteousness here describes a life directed toward what is right before him. The image of the green leaf speaks of living growth, rather than security built only from accumulated possessions.

We should not turn the image into a promise that faithful people will always appear prosperous or escape hardship. The contrast teaches us which way of life is sound before God. A person may have fewer visible advantages and still be growing in truthfulness, generosity, and dependence on him.

An ordinary decision can reveal the difference. When an opportunity offers more money at the expense of honesty or another person's well-being, the question reaches beyond what we might gain. What are we trusting enough to obey? Can we value a right course even when its immediate return is smaller?

These sayings belong together because our pursuits and our trust continually influence one another. Seeking good becomes more possible when we stop requiring wealth to guarantee our whole life. Trust in God gives us room to use resources wisely while keeping truth, mercy, and our neighbor's good within the decision.

Words of Wisdom

Give your diligence to what is good. Use what you have responsibly, while resting your life in God rather than asking possessions to provide the security only he can give.

A Prayer

Lord, guide what I seek and where I place my trust. Help me notice opportunities to do good, turn from harmful aims, and use resources faithfully. Steady me in your care when doing right carries a cost. Amen.

Sources Consulted