I. Prayer to enter the Lord’s presence:
Be still for a moment. “Lord, I give the day that is now past to you. It is yours. I give the day that is to come to you; help me to see where you are working and to join you there. Speak to me during these moments. I commit them and myself to you.”
II. Prayer of Confession:
“Lord, you are faithful to forgive me and cleanse me of my sin when I confess it to you. I confess my sin(s) of ______________. Thank you for forgiveness.” (1 John 1:9)
III. Prayer of Thanksgiving:
Choose to be thankful, speak out loud of what God has done.
“Thank you, Father, for _________________. Fill my heart and my mouth with gratitude throughout this day.”
IV. Scripture Reflection
Read: Proverbs Chapter 19
Reflect:
Proverbs 19:3
A person’s own foolishness leads him astray,
yet his heart rages against the Lord.
Here’s how I would paraphrase this verse, “A person’s own stupidity takes him off the path, but all he can do is blame God for it.”
You see this kind of behavior from a child when things don’t go their way. They’re quick to blame anyone standing around. I remember a time when one of my grandkids tripped over his own shoelace while we were out for a walk together. I had warned him about his shoelaces being untied, but he paid me no mind at all. So I just let him go about his business. It didn’t take long before he was face down on the sidewalk. He went down like a 2×4… smack! Oh, he was so mad when he came up. Even before he was able to get all the way up, he was blaming me for the fall! All I could do was chuckle at his lack of situational awareness. I just shook my head and kept on walking.
Yes, it’s one thing to be a child and make this kind of mistake, but to be an adult and respond this way to one’s own bad choices is quite a different matter, especially when God is the one they blame. Actually it’s tragic, and it ought to make us cringe.
It’s kind of like the runner on the track who is just not getting what the coach is telling him to do. When he comes back around, the coach hollers out, “take another lap!” And rather than look at what he’s not doing, he blames the coach for the abundance of laps ran.
How much better it would be for us if, rather than raging against God when we screw things up, we take responsibility for our own actions and try to fix the errors by learning the right strategies for living. The quicker we can place the blame where it needs to be—and most of the time the blame points back to us and our choices—the quicker we can move in the direction of correcting an issue.
Respond:
Don’t blame God for your foolish choices. Ask God to help you learn from your mistakes. Ask Him to show you ways that you’ve not taken responsibility for your own actions. When He brings something to mind, repent of it, take responsibility, and determine to live in line with His ways.
V. Prayer for others:
Pray specifically for the concerns of your life and the lives of others.
VI. Prayer of commitment:
“Lord God, I commit to love you with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength and with all my mind and to love my neighbor as myself. Empower me today to love you and others with everything that I am.” (Luke 10:27)
This Week’s Scripture Memory:
Proverbs 31:10
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.