Proverb 25 highlighted the point of not being hasty in your actions. For instance, promoting yourself all of a sudden before a governing authority would not be prudent. It is better that your actions promote you. Later on, it mentioned not automatically taking people to court without approaching the person first.

Exalting ourselves was not recommended by Jesus. He told us that when we enter a room, it is better to take the lowest seat and have the host place us in a higher seating rank. Very smart! Also, Jesus through Paul advised us to first handle matters with an individual. If the person will not listen to you and fellow believers, then there would be room for discipline. As far as nonbelievers, you would go to them first, and if they don’t listen, there would be grounds for litigation. It all boils down to how you would be portraying the Lord, the Church, and yourself.

The sixteenth verse of Proverbs 24 comforted me so much! I praise God He is there for His children. We may think it is all over, but that is not what the Lord says.

This verse says that even though the righteous person may fall several times, they are going to rise again. It is not so with the wicked individual. When disaster comes their way, they are going to fall. I have seen that in my life and those who love God…we keep getting up after set backs! Just wait…when we are resurrected, we will rise and meet Him in the air! It reminded me of a song I heard when growing up…”I Will Rise Again,” by Dallas Holmes.

In Proverbs 23 it had several verses warning about seeking drink/wine. It mentioned that it caused distortions in mans’ thinking. The Proverbs’ writer ended that section with the thought that the drinker usually ends up wanting to wake up, only to go after another drink.

My Father did an excellent job raising my Sister and I to stay away from drinking. He shared with us what abusing drinking had done to our Grandfather. He had ended up abusing my Dad a couple of times, and it almost cost my Grandfather his marriage. We were also told the story about their next door neighbor. Apparently this man had gotten so drunk he fell into a blackberry bush. My Grandma ended up cleaning him up and sending him on his way.

At any rate, I am thankful Dad did not let these experiences destroy him; but, God protected him in giving him the resolve to never touch alcohol. I wanted to honor God, and my Father, by not drinking. Lord, I pray that you will give us the purpose in our hearts to not sin against you! Amen!

Proverbs 22 opened up with the statement that someone’s reputation is more important than riches.  Isn’t that so true!?  That is my goal in life…when people hear my name, I pray they will equate it to goodness (following God).

The point is if all people see from you is how much wealth you have obtained, it is worthless.  If you are one who sets examples of what Christ would do, that will be an eternal inheritance.  This kind of goes along with the thought of how priceless knowing Christ is.  For me, since I have not been blessed with children or wealth, I  need to cherish the fact that I am leaving an everlasting inheritance when sharing Christ and His ways.

Chapter 21 of Proverbs was a comfort to me.  It reaffirms that God cares about your heart; what you do in His name He will bless.  An encouragement was given to not make your heart cold and hard to the Lord.

The Scriptures went on to pinpoint the fact that even though we see evil people succeeding, God is going to see that evil and overcome it.  The chapter ended up with the thought that the horse is used for the battle, but God is the one who makes us victorious. Make we go forth in His name to victory!

Proverbs 20 highlighted the idea that only God knows mans’ ways; how are we to grasp which path to take in our own understanding!?  It got me to think on how many times David asked God to search his heart and try his ways. God’s opinion and direction should be all we are concerned about.  I wanted to share a happening that took place when I was about twelve years old.

One day I was approached by “my best friend,” and she wanted me to reveal my true feelings about our mutual friend.  My friend, unbeknownst to me, had talked to this acquaintance and wanted me to spill how much I was bothered by her.  Thinking I could trust my “best friend,” I revealed my feelings.  She then went and told this girl how I truly felt about her.  This Proverbs mentioned to stay away from a tale bearer because you will be hurt.  I learned a difficult lesson!

Bottom line, when we are concerned about what God thinks of us and what He wants us to do, we will have light for our path. God, I ask that you will help all of us concern ourselves about what you want us to do or say ; not to put our of others’ beliefs/feelings before yours.  In your name, Amen!

The Holy Spirit was speaking to me this morning about direction.  As Solomon stated here in Proverbs 19, it is not worthwhile to have a strong drive without channeling.  A person’s efforts will be fruitless without the enlightening of God.  This pertains to a strong-willed child; personally, the section in this chapter about wives encouraged me.

I praise God He has given me Alan; I need to remember it is Him that placed me in my husband’s life.  My prayer is that I will be given understanding as to how to be an excellent wife, so I will be a good servant.  I want to be told I did a good job!  I have learned it does a wife nothing when she just has the desire of being a successful wife.  She needs to be on her knees asking God for direction in her awesome responsibility.

Today’s reading was from Proverbs 18. When I looked at these verses, what jumped out to me was God being a strong tower. He is protection for us, and He is strong enough to rescue us from all our difficulties and trials.

One of the verses mentioned that the heart contained deep waters; but, in God’s wisdom He provides rivers of living water. He is able to cleanse us and to rescue us from all the destruction that lies in the heart of man.

Another verse stated how men love to flaunt their own hearts’ beliefs. This chapter says they are foolish. Instead, we should all seek after understanding, God’s understanding. When flippant answers are given, it shows that we only believe ourselves and are prideful. When we take time to consider God’s ways, oh how that will bring answers and life to all of us!

Throughout Proverbs 17, these verses hinged on making peace. The peace spoken about is with God and man. It spoke of different cases of how important making wise choices is.

It opened up with stating how it was much better to dine in peace than to have an eloquent meal with turmoil. The Chapter proceeds to bring up how a wise son brings joy/satisfaction to his Parents. It dealt with the fact that it was important to be accessible to talk with; but, when someone repeatedly sins against you, that is the time to protect yourself against them. It is true, as stated in this chapter, that those who go around stirring up bitterness are like someone cracking a dam.

On the subject of peace with God, it brought up an interesting fact. It stated that God tries the heart like the furnace purifies gold. I was reminded of when God allowed Satan to afflict Job. I am sure that God allowed that to happen so that Job’s righteousness in Christ would be shown ( looking forward to his Messiah coming.) Lord I ask that you would make us right with you, at peace with you, and at peace with others. In Your name, Amen!

The Lord truly is the author of wisdom! This chapter started off with the thought of man’s hearts controlling him or her, but God directing the tongue. It then mentioned man planning what is going to be done, and God directing his path. This speaks to me of needing the Spirit’s direction.

I can amen the fact that we can have emotions and desires; but, we are incapable of harnessing them in and directing these feelings/ideas. A lot of times the reason we do not see good coming forth from our lives is that we have not tuned into the Creator!

Lord, I pray that all of us will look to you to shine the light of direction for us. We need your supernatural power to be good stewards and to be able to bring good fruit from our hearts’ desires. We love you Lord! Amen!