Good day to you! Let's start by continuing our look at Proverbs, this time Pr 6:1-5

"1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, If you have given your handshake to a stranger, 2 If you have been ensnared by your promise, Caught by the words of your mouth, 3 Do this, my son, and free yourself, For you have fallen into the hand of your neighbor: Go and humble yourself and urgently plead with your neighbor. 4 Do not allow your eyes to sleep, Nor your eyelids to slumber. 5 Free yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, Like a bird from the hand of the birdcatcher."

No one wants to be in such a situation. You've opened your mouth and made an obligation with someone, and something unexpected has come along to throw you off course, perhaps temporarily hindering you from meeting that agreement. No doubt you should go to Jehovah in prayer over the matter. Then, what wisdom not to delay, but humble yourself and "urgently plead with your neighbor." Do whatever you can to appease the other party, and perhaps get back on track with your obligation. Jehovah will no doubt bless your effort to keep your word to the extent possible.

While God's name Jehovah should appear in over 7,000 places in the Scriptures, as it originally appeared, many Bible have it replaced with LORD, all capitals. But some left it in a few places. In the King James Version of the Bible, God's full name appears in 7 places, including Psalm 83:18, which reads "18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth." Now the context reveals that the name is referring to God, but is the "most high" mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures? Yes, in the 6th psalm of book 2, Psalm 47. Notice verses 1,2 in our modern Bible: "...Shout in triumph to God with joyful cries. For Jehovah the Most High is awe-inspiring; He is the great King over all the earth." Jehovah wants his name known, but with the great respect and admiration it deserves. The sanctification of God's name is foremost in the Model Prayer, or the Our Father prayer of Matthew 6:9,10, as Jesus taught his disciples, and is part of the theme of every inspired book of the Bible, the theme of the Bible being the vindication of God's sovereignty, or right to rule mankind, and the sanctification of His name, upholding it as holy, cleared of reproach.

Matthew 6:1-4 exhorts not to practice our "righteousness in front of men in order to be noticed by them. 2 So when you make gifts of mercy, do not blow a trumpet ahead of you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be glorified by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 But you, when making gifts of mercy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your gifts of mercy may be in secret. Then your Father who looks on in secret will repay you."

Yes, we want to be different from the world influenced by evil, pleasing God, but we shouldn't act like the self-righteous Pharisees who sought the glory from men in everything they did. We should want our glory to come from God, in his own time and way, as we seek God's glory by obeying Him and helping others see that serving Him is the best way of life. When extending kindness to others, it is best not to "let your left hand know what your right hand is doing," an expression indicating that we should not advertise our work even to those who are as close to us as our left hand is to our right hand, that is, even to our intimate companions.