“Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”
– Proverbs 26:11
I read that and I think about the number of times I’ve done something foolish, unwise, and then I’ve gone back and I’ve done the same thing again, and then sometimes again and again and I realize I’m like a dog returning to my vomit. You’d think I’d learn.
When we realize that we’ve done something foolish, we need to ask God to help us remember the cost of our foolishness.
I’m guessing I’m not alone in this, I’m guessing I’m not the only one who seems to find myself learning things over and over and over again. This Proverb is a good reminder that when we realize that we’ve done something foolish that we need to pause and ask God to help us realize how foolish that is and help us to remember how foolish that is. That we don’t keep returning to that foolishness, that we don’t, like a dog going back to his own vomit, keep going back to it.
Proverbs 26:11 Reminds Us of the Cost of Sin
This is what we see over and over again all throughout scripture. You think about all the exhortations from God to his people to remember, remember how costly sin was and that circumstance, don’t go back to it. We’re so prone to forget how foolish this or that might be that we need to constantly be remembering and we need God to help us in that.
God, we confess, we are foolish people who’ve done foolish things and we don’t want to keep going back to foolishness. Help us we pray oh God, help us to remember your grace that covered over that foolishness, help us to remember the cost when we acted in that way, said this thing, did whatever it is that was foolish. Help us to remember the consequences of that sin and help us to run from it next time we’re faced with it.
Proverbs 26:11 Warns Us Against Returning to Sin
Lord help us not to return to our own vomit, so to speak. Help us to learn, help us to grow in wisdom so that we don’t keep going back to sin and foolishness. Help us to run from it and to run to you and to experience righteousness and God we need your grace to do this.
We need your grace to turn away from sin and foolishness every day, particularly sin and foolishness that we know is harmful and destructive because we’ve experienced the harm and destruction of it. God help us we pray to walk in righteousness based on lessons we’ve learned from foolishness. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
