I love the story about the Boy Scout motto, “Be prepared.” The founder of the world-wide scouting movement was asked the inevitable follow-up, “Be prepared for what?” Robert Baden-Powell, a British army officer replied, without hesitation, “Why, for any old thing!”
That is precisely the tone echoed in Proverbs 3:23-26:
Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble;
when you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
Have no fear of sudden disaster
or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
for the Lord will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being snared.
This is not bravado, swagger, or whistling in the dark. It is the healthy confidence we have when we follow God’s will. Solomon does not suggest that disaster will not come, nor that the path won’t have stones and snares. But he says the stones won’t trip you, the snares won’t entangle you, the tragedy will not destroy you, and through it all you will be able to get some sleep.
This is written to one who has taken the advice of a wise father and has been setting his life in order. This is where the “be prepared” part comes in. Solomon is assuring those who have readied themselves for life, including its disasters. These are provisional principles, based upon your obedience (3:1-22). This is why these verses begin, “Then. . .” You can, with the Lord’s help, be ready for “any old thing.”
God is a God of grace and mercy, and always responds in love to those who call upon Him. And He does not hold our past against us. But there is a law of sowing and reaping, and here Solomon is assuring us that those who are prepared physically, psychologically, and spiritually can have courage in crisis, and need not be immobilized by fear.
You are more prepared than you know for what is happening, if God has graced you with the riches of Christ. Drink deeply of the Living Water, and share Him with those who have not yet found the Stream.
“Father, help us take your Word to heart and do all we can to order our lives so that when challenging times come, our courage does not fail. In the name of Jesus. Amen.”