Week 13: Fortune Cookie Scriptures

5 fortune cookie fortunes. 5 or so comparative Scriptures. 
Let's see what we find...

Fortune #1: "Trust your intuition."

From a biblical standpoint, we can't trust our "natural" intuition to always line up with what God says. According to 1 Corinthians 2:11, which states:

"For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God."

Any God-given understanding is true wisdom. Trusting God's will to direct our lives is the only true intuition we should follow. But you gotta be careful, sometimes that creepy little voice in your head may sound like its right...but you could be having the (cough) privilege of hearing from the Dark Side (no pun intended). Just match up your thoughts to the Bible and you'll find out the true answer to your questions.

Fortune #2: "Take the advice of a faithful friend."

I got this one while I was munching my way through a box of fortune cookies I had bought at the grocery story while watching Nikita. The verse that popped into my head as soon as I got this one was,

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." Proverbs 27:17 (NLT).

If you have a "two way street" relationship with a friend, then you can both help, encourage, and strengthen each other. Think opposite of jello. Don't be afraid to speak the truth in love. It's kind of like a metal file...it's irritating for a while, but it slowly smooths out your rough edges if you respond to your friend's Godly advice correctly. No one likes a person that goes around agreeing with every darn thing you say. It's like talking to a parrot or something. Someone who is actively involved in your life and truly cares about your well being is by far a true friend.

Fortune #3: "You will always be prepared for the future, but never forget what you've learned from the past."

If you're smart, you learn from the mistakes you've made in the past. If you're stupid, you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over without learning the reason why you fall for them or why you find yourself repeatedly doing them. Forgetting the pain of the past, but taking it's life lessons with you towards your future is the wise choice. "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3
If that isn't a clear message of hope for the future, I don't know what else is!

Fortune #4: "A good evening is one spent with good company."

I'm going to stick my foot in my mouth with this one but it really ought to be said...

Check out these verses:

A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day. Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind or trying to hold something with greased hands.

Proverbs 27:15-16 (New Living Translation)

It is better to live alone in the desert than with a crabby, complaining wife.

Proverbs 21:19 (New Living Translation)

Those are some pretty strong analogies, ladies. A nagging, nit-picky, whiny woman is a very repulsive thing. So take it from one of your own kind, a good evening is one spent without the whiny woman. Wipe that gripe off and get happy!  *tries to dodge getting shot*

Fortune #5: "Failure is the Mother of Success."

Nobody truly enjoys failing. If you do, you might want to check yourself into the funny farm. Those who pick themselves back up after failing and press towards their goal are the ones that achieve success. In Proverbs 24:10, it says: "If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!" which is true. But David in the Psalms encourages: "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalms 73:26  Only God can truly give you the strength you need to succeed in this world.
So who says you can't be the best person you can be? If you trust God, and keep going even when the times get tough, that my friend is the path to true success.

If you enjoy getting fortune cookies and reading the fortunes (and crunching on that weird yellow cookie material and regularly making a mess of the table like I do), trying cracking the binding of your Bible and tuning  into Proverbs. I basically think of Proverbs as the Fortune Cookie Scriptures. Little bits of wisdom in easy, two line verses. Solomon, the wise guy (haha I mean wise man) that wrote these verses, should have started his own fortune cookie company because the advice God gave him to write down is way better than some of the lame cookie fortunes I've gotten (for example, "Photographic memory! Remember to put film. Or is it digital?!" was the lamest so far)
Personally, Proverbs 14-21 are my favorites. I have them all underlined and marked up in my tiny purple Bible by my bed. I dare you to read them and see for yourself!


For you,