Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast. For the Gospel is all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. This is Kosti Hinn, and I am your host. On today's episode, I want to unpack a biblical quality that you need in your life. This is one of those episodes that will walk you through a list of blessings from this particular quality, and each particular blessing is going to correlate to a verse. If you don't get to jot down every single one of these, you're going to know still how to feed yourself straight from the word of God, because I'm going to tell you the quality and I'm going to walk you through the list of blessings, and I'm going to show you where to easily find this. And this can serve as a model for you as you do particular word studies or theological concept studies in Scripture. No delay here. You ready for the quality? Here it is. Prudence. The quality of prudence. Now Merriam Webster defines prudence as the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. So obviously there's some logic involved. Another definition, the skill and good judgment in the use of resources. Oh, pretty good there. Another one, caution or circumspection as to danger or risk. You start hearing some of those general Webster definitions, and you realize that prudence is pretty helpful, especially if you're a business owner, if you're a leader, or just in general, you're trying to grow in your life and you need to know how to make good decisions. For a second, I want you to think of prudence and how people tend to think of this concept in today's world. First, the root word prude. You can hear it in there, prudence. A word like this has become long associated with stuffy, rigid, no-fun people. It's where we get the concept from, especially women. A lot of women get picked on in this way with sarcasm or caricatures. I remember in high school and college, back before I was serving the Lord for real, and you know, friends or guys in my school or different friendship circles would refer to a girl who dressed modestly or lived godly. She didn't party. She didn't act like the world. She'd be called a prude. And the world makes fun of this kind of girl, depicting her as, you know, some sort of Amish type, you know, in the caricatures that even comedy uh spoofs will spin off. This girl has a turtleneck up to her chin. She's got a long dress down to her toes. She does not wear elevated shoes. And she never wears makeup. She doesn't do her hair. She always looks haggard. She's boring and on and on and on and on. And when you mention prudence or prude, people tend to run. You know, who wants to be thought of as stuffy and boring, not adventurous, lacking vision or excitement or the chance to take a risk in life. But according to the Bible, not the world, prudence is not turtlenecks to your chin, unless it's winter in Canada, then you really are prudent and wise. It does involve discretion, and it might naturally, biblically, lead to the right view of many things, including purity and using wisdom there, your planning, your decision making, your relationships, your emotions, your wisdom, and more. But there is a lot of things that the Bible describes as prudent, and it is not all about what the world says is prude. In the book of Proverbs, the word prudence is mentioned one way or another numerous times. And sometimes the NASB translation will translate it as the word understanding, which gives us a big clue into an associated meaning. Prudence is discerning and understanding circumstances, decisions, people, thoughts, and emotions so that in whatever you do or say, you can please the Lord in all aspects, and you can bear the maximum amount of fruit living your life for Him. That's really what prudence is all about. I want you, and certainly for myself, to bear fruit living your life for the glory of God. Now there is a maximization of that. You and I are given talents, abilities, gifts, resources, and it takes prudence to use those and apply those with wisdom. I want to give you 10 examples of prudence from the book of Proverbs. You call these 10 blessings from being prudent. And I want to do something on this episode to show you how you can study Proverbs and particular qualities in the Proverbs. It's so easy. Anyone can do it. The newest Christian and the longest standing Christian can both enjoy this sort of exercise or study until you meet Jesus. It never gets old. So let's walk through these 10 blessings. I'm going to actually use my Bible. I'm not just going to read from my podcast manuscript or some bullet points. I'm just going to go through my Bible so you can see. We can do it on this episode. And look, you can do this in your daily life. The first one is Proverbs 1, 4. It says, to give prudence to the naive, to the youth, knowledge and discretion. What is Solomon referring to? Well, he's talking about Proverbs. These exact Proverbs. The book of Proverbs is to give prudence to the naive and to give the youth or the young person or the person growing up knowledge and discretion. You need prudence. Every one of us can be naive in our life. Maybe you're older and seasoned in life, and you're pretty smart. You got some pretty good experiences. You've done some things. Well, there are going to be blind spots in your life. You are going to be naive at times, and you need prudence. And you need people around you who are prudent. And certainly for many of us who are in our 20s and our 30s, even our 40s, you know, the first and second quarter of life, we need to be prudent because we can be naive. Many times we don't know what we don't know. And so right away in Proverbs 1:4, a blessing of prudence is that it gives us knowledge, discretion, and it solves our issue of being naive. Here's another one. If I just flip over to chapter 8, and I go to chapter 8, verses 12 to 14, I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverted mouth I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. Power is mine. Such a beautiful and a poetic description of what wisdom and prudence do. But here's what I want you to understand the blessing of prudence is that wisdom dwells with it. When you are prudent, you are being wise. You are being wise when you are being prudent. So many people scoff at slowing down, praying, seeking the Lord, seeking his word, and every one of us can be guilty of making knee-jerk decisions. Wisdom is slowing down. Prudence is wise. You want to be wise? Be prudent. Here's another one. You turn over to Proverbs 12, 16. Just keep turning in your Bible, and you see a fool's vexation is known all at once, but a prudent man conceals dishonor. This is the idea of not blowing up. This is the idea of controlling your emotions. A fool's vexation, it's known all at once. When you're dealing with a fool and you say something, they just grimace, they blow up, they are reactive, they do not respond slowly, they don't ask a lot of questions, they just blow up. If you've ever been in conflict, maybe today even you've already been in conflict, you know you're dealing with someone who's not being prudent in that moment because their vexation just explodes. But a prudent man conceals dishonor. What does this mean? It means a prudent person controls emotions. Prudence will bless you because it'll keep your emotions under control. And then you won't and I won't make a fool of ourselves when we fly off the handle and we blow up, and we realize now we look like a fool. Even if you're frustrated today, even if you think what someone is telling you is absolutely ridiculous, don't show your vexation all at once. Slow down, control your emotions. You're obviously right if you know factually that they're wrong. And blowing up and acting a fool of yourself is only going to destroy your opportunity to lead them, or more importantly, as a believer, be a witness to them. People are naturally going to follow and listen someone who to someone who's in control of their emotions. In leadership, we call this being a non-anxious presence in the room. While everybody else is freaking out. The prudent person is calm. It doesn't mean they don't think it's important. It doesn't mean they don't see the danger or the concern for what it is. But the prudent person slows down and controls their emotions. Here's another one. You just turn your Bible pages over to chapter 15 and go to verse five. A fool rejects his father's discipline, but he who regards reproof is prudent. This is a good one and it's a convicting one for all of us. A fool rejects his father's discipline. What does that mean? Well, it's pretty simple. A lot of times, especially in the Bible, and what Solomon's getting at here is a father's discipline guides and corrects his children. But a fool rejects it. A fool is not teachable. A fool doesn't think they have anything to be corrected of, they go their own way. But what is prudence? How will it bless you? It'll bless you because it regards correction. Well, what happens when you regard correction? You are going to be corrected, you're going to be made right, you're going to go the right way, and the right way is always going to lead to blessing. It doesn't mean money. Certainly could mean blessing materially, is you make the right decisions and you're not foolish. You think of the prodigal son and how he ruined so many things by making the wrong decision, even though he ends up getting welcomed back by his father. But he who regards reproof as prudent, somebody who learns teachability is priceless. If you were to ask me if I had the chance to hire one of two candidates, and one candidate knew a ton, super talented, executor of things, knows how to get it done, but man, he does not have a teachable bone in his body. He knows everything. Even if he's successful. Maybe in some business circles, if I'm just trying to run everybody over, sure, that's the easy hire according to the world systems. But as a believer, if I'm prudent and I'm playing the long game and I'm looking for long-term success, I don't need to know it all. I need someone who's teachable. Somebody who comes in and is humble, teachable, available. They regard reproof. When you correct them, they don't blast you. They don't come up with all these prideful excuses. They accept it, they learn, and they plow forward. You find me someone who is teachable, I will show you a person who will be fruitful, successful, and blessed in what they do because bosses want people with that attitude, and they they eventually become the leaders, and they get handed responsibility and authority because they are trustworthy. Where does that all start? It starts when your authority and my authority, our Heavenly Father, lays out his will and we regard his reproof. It flows into our homes. If you're still in the home, or if you think back to moments where you have a choice to reject your father's instruction or to regard his reproof, prudence leads to blessing. It regards correction. Here's another one. Proverbs 1622. Understanding is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the discipline of fools is folly. That word understanding can translate in some translations prudence. You could say prudence is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the discipline of fools is folly. Fools will end up in folly. They'll end up tripping over themselves flat on their face. That is their discipline, that is the result. But for those who are prudent, it's a fountain of life. You know those people who sleep great at night because they're making good decisions? They sleep great at night, wake up in the morning ready to go because they're praying. Even if there is a lot going on in their life, even if there is questions, things that bring anxiety, trouble, conflict, their prudence is a fountain of life. Their life overall, the trajectory of it is blessed because of prudence. If you keep turning over Proverbs 17, verse 28, listen to this one. Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he's counted as prudent. This is great. Bottom line, prudence, the blessing of it, can help fools be quiet. Now I don't know about you, but I'm not perfect. There are moments where I am better off keeping my mouth closed. Proverbs says this also, that where words are many, transgression is unavoidable. You ever heard that proverb? Yeah, when we talk a lot, we're gonna sin. It's one of the challenges, by the way, of being a pastor, is people expect us to talk a lot, and then we end up saying something that wasn't exactly what we were supposed to say, or we said the wrong thing at the wrong time, or the right thing at the wrong time. You have all these moments. Bottom line, even the best of men or men at best, your pastors are gonna say the wrong thing sometimes. Or maybe their tone or the way they approached it. It's tough. But for all of us, at any given moment, even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise. Sometimes in life, it's really wise and it's really prudent for you and I to not speak. That is prudence. If you're one of those people that right now sort of looking in the metaphorical mirror, maybe you're driving, don't look in it too long. You're going, yeah, that's me. I really need to do a better job of keeping my mouth closed in certain situations. Praise God. Let prudence guide you and experience the blessing of listening and discerning and understanding before speaking. That's Proverbs 17, 28. Here's another one, eighteen verse fifteen. The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Prudence acquires knowledge and it acts on it. That's what prudence does. Prudence is the quality that will help you be a person of action. You ever heard the old adage, there's those who talk and those who do? Be a doer. You certainly have heard what James has said. If you've been listening to our podcast long, we've talked about this on previous episodes where uh the apostle James says not just to be hearers of the word, but to be doers of the word. Well, prudence is going to help you be a doer. You discern, you understand, you slow down, and you realize I don't just need to listen to this wisdom right now. I need to act on this wisdom right now. And so if you get the idea that prudence is slow and it's sort of just going along and mosing down the road and it doesn't really act too quickly now, you've got the wrong idea about prudence. Prudence does slow down, it prays, it thinks, it discerns. But once prudence has the answer and has acquired the knowledge, it acts. And how's it how does it act? Look, the ear of the wise seeks knowledge, it acquires knowledge, the mind of the prudent. So there's this action. So here's one thing you don't need to wait on. Should you seek out knowledge and wisdom? Yes, do it now. Don't wait. You don't need to pray about that per se. Go on and get wisdom. Go on and get knowledge. The prudent is eager to be teachable and to acquire what it needs to learn. That's Proverbs 18, 15. Proverbs 19, 14 is another one. House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers. What Solomon is basically laying out is hey, there's a lot of wonderful gifts that come from faithful fathers who work hard. You're gonna get house, wealth, you've got a foundation to build on. Praise God for a father who leaves a godly inheritance, a godly father who leaves an inheritance, or just any general father who leaves an inheritance. That's still a common grace gift that God certainly uses and allows. But listen to what this says. But a prudent wife is from the Lord. Now we're talking. House and wealth. That's great. If your dad left you some good money, praise God. But when you get a prudent wife, you have been given a gift from the hand of God. To have a wife that is discerning, thoughtful, understanding, measured, she is a woman of discretion. You, my friend, are blessed. When I think about all the gifts I have in my life, the wonderful children God has given us, praise God. A ministry to get to serve and wake up each morning and get to live for the gospel, praise God. A local church we get to plant in Chandler, praise God. Amazing ministry teammates who are so sacrificial. They get after it every day. They're humble, teachable, available, praise God. The ability to keep the lights on and have food in the fridge, praise God. The ability to wake up each day with breath in my lungs, praise God. But if you ask me what the greatest gift is, it's a prudent wife. It's the ability to wake up and enjoy all those things and get after it without a wife who's racking the credit card, spending like crazy, doing whatever she wants and thinking that it's just, well, daddy's the piggy bank. It's the ability to have a wife who knows when to speak and when not to speak. It's not a gossip out in the street. She's not off just scrolling social media all day. It's not a woman that's flying off the handle at the kids and losing her emotions. A prudent wife. A woman that I don't even keep having to reel in from her own lack of prudence. That's a gift. I want that for so many young men. I'm thankful for it in my own life. I know so many of my brothers and so many wonderful men of God who are thankful for their prudent wife as well. It's a gift from the Lord. So, young, you young ladies listening to this, if you're single, you're not married yet, I would encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to sharpen your prudence, to grow it, to develop it. I would look at the Proverbs. The greatest thing you could ever give a man one day isn't your outward beauty. As great as that may be, and as beautiful as you may be, and as wild as he is going to be on your wedding day, you know what will absolutely rock his world over time and make him say, Praise God for this woman, if you are prudent. When the wedding day looks have faded, and when gravity takes over, sisters, he is still going to be praising God even more than he did at the altar, seeing you come through those doors and down the aisle because you're a prudent woman and you are a gift from the Lord. Proverbs twenty-seven twelve is the last one I want to put in front of you. A prudent man sees evil and hides himself. The naive proceed and pay the penalty. Bottom line prudence will protect you from evil. When you see evil happening, do not participate. Do not even investigate many times. You see it for what it is. There's no reason to get closer. Avoid evil. Run to righteousness. Prudence will protect you. My prayers, this episode will help you today as you think deeply about your decisions. Are we asking the right questions? Are we thinking about eternity? Is this person or that offer an opportunity or is it a distraction? Are my emotions driving the bus in this situation? Do I have a pattern of reacting negatively to loving correction? And I'm putting the right people around me? Is my time and money being managed in a way that reflects my confession of faith in Christ and his coming kingdom? Am I preparing to be the kind of godly man or godly woman that makes my future spouse say, You are a gift from the Lord. Prudence will likely be your most trusted asset today. So slow down, think, pray, and then act. Be prudent. We'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.