Tag: Proverbs 12:26
May God direct our way!
Scripture reading for November 16th: 1st Thessalonians 3, Psalm 79, Proverbs 12
1st Thessalonians 3: 8-13 “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”
Paul was commending these persecuted believers for standing firm in the Lord. It brought him great joy and he offered prayers of thanksgiving to God for His protection of them and provision for them. Here he prays that God would graciously direct his way back to them that he might meet face to face with them again. Paul knew that it was all God’s grace to direct his steps, increase their love, and establish all hearts blameless at Christ’s return. It is by faith that we daily appropriate His grace and live a life of joy and effective witness. He daily delivers us and covers our sins for His own Name’s sake and directs our way to our heavenly home.
Psalm 79:8-9 “Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let Your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your Name; deliver us and atone for our sins, for Your Name’s sake!”
Prayer: Father God, I depend today on Your grace and covering for my sins. Thank You for Your divine promise to direct my way and establish my heart blameless before you through Your Son, Jesus Christ. I offer my body, mind, and spirit to be directed in Your way today and to live in such a way that I will help guide others into the Way, the Truth and Life of Jesus Christ, my Lord!
Proverbs 12:26 “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
Victory in Jesus!
Scripture reading for October 4th: 1st John 5, Psalm 48, Proverbs 12
1st John 5:1-5 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world–our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one that believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?”
John has a way of making salvation and new birth very simple and easy to understand. He states simply that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. To believe means to have faith. Faith is the confident trust that Jesus Christ is God’s Son Who came to earth to save us from our sins as the ‘Messiah’–‘Anointed One’. If we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we love other children of God and we love God. We demonstrate our faith by acting on what God has said, pleasing Him, and turning away from all that God hates. Through faith, by grace, we overcome the world and the god of this world. By faith we love God and obey His commandments with joy because they are not burdensome, but a delight!
Psalm 48:12-14 “Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us in obeying Your Word and loving You and others each day. Thank You for Your righteousness, that I might be a guide to my neighbor in love of his soul. Use me to tell the next generation that God is my God forever and ever! I claim victory over the world, flesh, and devil through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, my Savior and King!
Proverbs 12:26 “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
Put on the armor of Light!
Scripture reading for June 9th: Proverbs 11-13, Psalm 8, Romans 13
Romans 13: 11-14 “Besides this you know that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now that when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Paul encouraged believers who had given their bodies to God as a living sacrifice and their minds to think God’s thoughts to now apply these truths in practical ways. It is easy to acknowledge spiritual truth and then not apply it. We must know who we are–now children of Light living in God’s glory and made to bring Him honor. We must cast off the works of darkness that marked our old way of living and now cloth ourselves with the armor of Light! We are told to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus is our righteousness, our sanctification and the assurance of our resurrection and full salvation. Our new living in Christ Jesus serves as a guide to those who are our neighbors, believers and unbelievers! Amen!
Psalm 8:3-5 “When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”
Prayer: Father God, when I see the vastness and intricacy of Your amazing creation, I wonder, along with the psalmist, ‘what is man that Your are mindful of him?” But in Christ Jesus You have shown me my true identity as Your child and my calling to love You and love my neighbors through obedience to Your Word. Clothe me afresh today with My Lord Jesus Christ and the armor of Light!
Proverbs 12:26 “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”