FBC Daily Devotional – Dec. 7, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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worship together with God's people on the Lord's Day yesterday, and just had a good day of worshiping the

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Lord, maybe focusing on Him, and you're in some extra reading, whatever. I just hope it was a good

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Christ -centered day, and especially as we're looking forward to Christmas here in a few weeks, and turning our attention on the birth of the

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Savior and why he came. So some good thoughts to reflect on on a

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Lord's Day during these Sundays of Advent. I know a lot of people are quite the football fans, college football on Saturday and then, you know, games yesterday and all the rest of this stuff.

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If that's you, how'd your quarterback do? How did he do? Don't you just love it?

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I mean, you've got a favorite quarterback probably. Don't you just love it when these guys who know everything about the sport but have never played it sit in their armchairs and say, this is what that quarterback should have done.

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Why in the world didn't he do this? Why didn't he should have done this? He should have done that, da -da -da -da -da -da -da. Yeah, well, it's easy when you're sitting in an armchair being an armchair quarterback, right?

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Well, it's funny in that regard, but in real life, though, have you ever had an armchair quarterback try to tell you how you should have done something?

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I mean, here you are, you're in the midst of a problem, a challenge, a real challenge in your life, and you're trying to figure out what's the best thing to do.

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You pray about it, you search the Scripture, you get some counsel, you get some advice, and so forth, and then you make the decision.

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And when all is said and done, eh, maybe it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to or the way you hoped it would.

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Maybe you just totally bungled the thing. And along comes an armchair quarterback, and he says, well, you should have done this or you should have done that.

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If you would have done this, then things would have turned out perfectly. Why didn't you do it this way? Why didn't you?

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And so on. Isn't that aggravate the fire out of you? These kind of people are those who need to listen to Proverbs 26, 17.

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It says, whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.

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Clearly, the proverb is talking about, you know, you're walking along, two people are in an argument, and you stick your nose in, and you're trying, you're gonna sort it out, you're gonna solve this problem for them, and you end up getting bit by the dog.

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By the way, has that ever happened to you? When you've taken a passing dog by the ears?

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Literally? Well, I hope it's never happened to you figuratively in this sense, but it probably has.

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Many of us have made this very mistake playing the armchair quarterback. We jump into something in the middle of somebody else's stuff, and not only do we tick them off and make them upset with us, because, well, after all, this is none of your business, but we end up getting bit by it some way or another.

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Spurgeon commented on this kind of thing in one of his books. He's writing in this book,

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Flowers from a Puritan's Garden, and he writes this, and you have to kind of get it.

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Remember, this is in the late 1800s when Spurgeon's writing. It sounds like a little bit, but hear what he says.

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He says, Alas, we do not always suffer fools gladly, though suffer them we do.

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We have wished ourselves death at times when the most idle nonsense has been proffered us in the moment of greatest suspense.

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What's Spurgeon lamenting? He's lamenting the armchair quarterback, lamenting the expert who has no expertise in the matter at hand, who is just a novice but thinks he knows all things, thinks he has it all figured out.

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Oh, there's a better way. There's a better way than meddling in a quarrel that's not your own or playing the armchair quarterback in another person's crisis.

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This is what Paul counseled the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4 .11. He says,

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I encourage you to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your own hands.

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In other words, Paul is saying, mind your business. Mind your business. Don't stick your nose in other people's stuff.

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Don't think you have to give them all the answers to their problems. You're just going to invite trouble.

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Live quietly. Mind your own affairs. Work with your own hands. There's some great wisdom in that, and I trust

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God will give us the wisdom in having the sense to know when to keep our nose out of other people's stuff.

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Well, have a good rest of your Monday, and get off this new work week to a good start, and look forward to all that the

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Lord will do in you and through you in the course of this week ahead.